Israeli police shoot, kill alleged stabbing attacker

Israeli police said officers shot and killed a man Saturday after he allegedly tried to stab a soldier outside Jerusalem's Old City.

The suspect, who was killed before he was able to stab the soldier, was not immediately identified but was believed to have been Palestinian.

Amateur footage showed a man in blue jeans and a black jacket lying still on the ground at the Lion's Gate, on the eastern side of the Old City. Israeli medics said that Israeli security forces, while firing on the suspect, had lightly wounded a 42-year-old woman in the leg.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the attacker was armed with a knife and approached an officer who responded to the attack.

The Old City is home to holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, including the flashpoint compound known as the Al-Aqsa mosque to Muslims and the Temple Mount to Jews.

Tensions there have been high in recent years, and clashes often erupt between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces over the entrance to the site.

The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their hoped-for future state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip lands Israeli captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

However, the newly released US peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would leave most of annexed east Jerusalem, including the holy sites, under Israeli control, with current understanding regulating worship to remain in place.