Israeli forces shoot dead suspected Palestinian attacker

Israeli forces on Friday shot dead a Palestinian suspect who police said tried to stab them at a checkpoint near a refugee camp in east Jerusalem.

"At the barrier of the Shuafat refugee camp Friday evening, a young Arab man approached security forces with a knife and tried to stab one of them," police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

Forces "replied by neutralising him," she added, later confirming he had died.

A later statement said a row had broken out during a search of a minibus at the entrance of the camp in east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied and later annexed.

No Israelis were injured, but police published a photo of the knife the suspect was allegedly carrying.

Israeli authorities provide very few public services (from sanitary to police) to Shuafat refugee camp, home to around 80,000 Palestinian residents of Jerusalem.

On Monday, a Palestinian youth from the camp was sentenced to 18 years in jail for stabbing and wounding two Israelis in in northern Jerusalem in October 2015.

Earlier in the month, another resident of the camp was shot and wounded after he threw a Molotov cocktail at Israeli soldiers in north Ramallah.

On 5 November 2014, a Palestinian man ran over and killed one Israeli soldier, and injured 13 other Israeli civilians.

The perpetrator, Ibrahim al-Akkari, 47, was shot dead by Israeli forces. A 60-year-old Palestinian man caught in the attack later died of his wounds.

Since October 2015, 241 Palestinians, 36 Israelis, two Americans, a Jordanian, an Eritrean and a Sudanese have been killed, according to an AFP count.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out attacks, according to Israeli authorities. 

Others were shot dead during protests or clashes, while some were killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza.