Five Israelis wounded and four Palestinian assailants shot dead in 24 hours of attacks as violence continues

Spike in attacks comes after year of renewed violence in Occupied Palestinian Territories

Israeli forensic police at the scene of a stabbing attack where a Palestinian was shot dead in the West Bank city of Hebron on 17 September (AFP/Getty Images)

Four Palestinians have been shot dead after attempting to attack Israeli civilians and security forces in a new spike in violence sweeping East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Four incidents were reported in 24 hours between Friday and Saturday, leaving three civilians and two soldiers wounded.

Surveillance footage showed a Palestinian man approaching a security checkpoint in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday morning.

He could be seen walking up to a soldier holding documents but as the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) guard took the paper, with his gun lowered, the Palestinian man pulled a knife from his pocket and attempted to stab him.

Footage showed the attacker being surrounded and shot by soldiers after attempting to stab them at a checkpoint in Hebron on 17 September (YouTube)

The first soldier ducked out of the way of the blade before the attacker, named locally as Hatem Abdel-Hafiz al-Shaloudi, ran at other troops.

The footage showed him falling to the ground while attempting to stab a second soldier, who held him down as he was shot by at least two others.

A spokesperson for the IDF said al-Shaloudi died at the scene, while a soldier was evacuated for medical treatment.

The attack followed three separate incidents on Friday. In the first, man came out of Jerusalem's walled Old City brandishing a knife in each hand and shouting “Allahu Akbar”, meaning “God is Great” in Arabic.

Israeli officials said he rushed at border police officers at Damascus Gate, who opened fire and killed him.

Israeli Border Police surround the body of a man shot while attempting to attack officers with a knife at Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem on 16 September (EPA)

The man was carrying both a Jordanian and a Palestinian ID, police said.

Less than an hour later, a car carrying two Palestinians was rammed into a bus stop near the Kiryat Arba settlement outside Hebron.

Soldiers shot the male driver dead and injured a female passenger, while three Israeli settlers were wounded. Photos published by the IDF showed a knife on the front seat.

A few hours later, at a junction in Tel Rumeida near Hebron, a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli soldier who opened fire and killed him, the military said.

Hebron, which contains the Cave of the Patriarchs/Ibrahimi Mosque, is divided between Israeli and Palestinian Authority control.

A Palestinian woman argues with an Israeli soldier near the scene of an attack in Tel Rumeida in the West Bank city of Hebron on 16 September (Reuters)

About 850 Israeli settlers live in heavily-guarded enclaves among tens of thousands of Palestinians, making it a frequent flashpoint for clashes.

A spokesperson for the IDF sad attacks were “just another example of the danger of Palestinian incitement spread through social media”.

But Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, said a wave of renewed violence that ignited last year was “bred from nearly five decades of Israeli occupation” and the result of “fear, humiliation, frustration and mistrust” among Palestinians.

At least 34 Israelis and two Americans have been killed in Palestinian stabbings, shootings and car rammings since last September, while more than 200 Palestinians have been shot dead by security forces in the same period.

Israeli officials said the vast majority were carrying out or attempting attacks, but others have been killed during protests.

Several incidents have been contested and the United Nations has voiced concern over reported “excessive use of force”, calling for independent investigations into each death and injury caused by the security services.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, condemned Israel for the “extra-judicial killings” of this weekend’s attackers but did not condemn the assaults themselves.

“Israel is flagrantly employing a systematic and wilful policy of summary executions against the Palestinian people; such provocative acts are in direct violation of international law and conventions,” she said. “We call on the international community to engage rapidly and effectively before it is too late.”