Israeli police shoot attacker who stabbed border guard in Jerusalem

Israeli police shot dead an attacker on Sunday evening after he stabbed a border guard at a gate to Jerusalem's Old City, police said.

The attacker stabbed the border policeman near the Damascus Gate in the historic wall of the Old City.

“The stabbed officer suffered minor injuries and was evacuated for medical treatment,” police said in a statement.

“Border police officers confronted the terrorist, neutralized him by shooting him and quickly ended the attack,” police said.

A police spokesman later told AFP that the attacker had been shot. He did not provide any further details about the attacker's identity.

Tensions between Palestinians and Israeli Jews are common in the Old City and have only worsened since the Gaza war began over eleven months ago.

In a separate statement, Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said the 20-year-old wounded officer suffered an injury to his upper body.

Police and border guards are on site and investigating the incident, it said.

Jerusalem, and especially the Old City, is a holy city for the three Abrahamic religions and remains a central issue at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel claims Jerusalem as its indivisible capital, but the United Nations and the international community consider Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem to be illegal.

The Palestinians seek to make occupied East Jerusalem, which includes the walled Old City and its holy sites, the capital of a future independent state.