JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Palestinian man was shot and killed after trying to stab an Israeli security guard at a West Bank checkpoint.
The Palestinian assailant pulled out a knife and approached a security guard at the Qalandiyah checkpoint near Jerusalem, according to the Israel Police.
The guard and the assailant engaged in a fistfight before the Palestinian was shot and killed by police, the police reported. No one else was reported injured in the attack.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the man as Jihad Mohammad Sa’id Khalil, 48, from the village of Beit Wazan, west of Nablus, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported.
Haaretz cited unnamed residents of Beit Wazan who said that Khalil was active in the first intifada, but that they could not understand why he would initiate such an attack, in part due to his age and because he recently seemed “mentally distraught.”
