JUST IN: Police killed Palestinian after stabbing female Israeli soldier in east Jerusalem

A knife-wielding Palestinian assailant stabbed and seriously wounded a female Israeli soldier before being shot dead in annexed east Jerusalem on Monday, police said.

Separately, the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces killed a young Palestinian man and seriously injured three others in the town of Halhul, in the south of the occupied West Bank.

“A terrorist armed with a knife arrived at Shalem police station and stabbed a female soldier… border police forces neutralised the terrorist by shooting,” police said in a statement.

According to AFP, police said a female soldier was seriously wounded and another suffered light injuries.

The Israeli emergency services said they had provided medical treatment to the wounded, both aged 20.

The assailant was identified by police as a young Palestinian from the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Issawiya.

It added that “another suspect” had been arrested near the scene of the attack, which has been cordoned off.

That marks the latest violence to flare up in the area as Israel deepens its military offensive in Gaza.

On October 30, a Palestinian stabbed and seriously wounded an Israeli police officer before being shot dead in east Jerusalem, the police said.

Israeli forces have stepped up their ground offensive in Gaza as part of the military response to the October 7 Hamas attacks that officials say killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, with more than 240 people taken hostage.

In the West Bank, more than 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since the start of hostilities on October 7, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Israel has relentlessly bombarded the Gaza Strip and sent in ground troops, with the health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory saying 9,770 people have been killed, around two-thirds of them women and children