'Palestinian carries out West Bank car ramming, shot dead'

A Palestinian carried out a car-ramming attack near the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, lightly wounding two Israeli soldiers before being shot dead, officials said.

Israel's army said the attack took place at the entrance to the town of Beit Einun, leaving the two soldiers wounded, and that the attacker had been shot by security forces.

The Palestinian health ministry confirmed that the Palestinian had died. No further information was immediately available on the attacker's identity.

Israeli-Palestinian tensions have risen in recent days following an attack near an ultra-sensitive Jerusalem holy site on Friday that killed two Israeli policemen.

However, there was no immediate sign of a link between the two incidents.

On Friday, three Arab Israelis opened fire on police before fleeing to the nearby Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, where security forces shot them dead.

Israel closed the site, which includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, for two days following the attack, angering Muslims and Jordan, the site's custodian.

Israel said the closure was necessary to carry out security checks.

The site reopened on Sunday, but with metal detectors at entrances.

Muslims have been refusing to enter because of the metal detectors, with Palestinians viewing the move as Israel asserting further control over the site.

A wave of unrest that broke out in October 2015 has claimed the lives of at least 283 Palestinians or Arab Israelis, 44 Israelis, two Americans, two Jordanians, an Eritrean, a Sudanese and a Briton, according to an AFP toll.

Israeli authorities say most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks.

Others were shot dead in protests and clashes, while some were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

The violence had greatly subsided in recent months.

source: AFP