Teen shot dead after Jerusalem stabbing

Two teenage Palestinian girls stabbed and lightly wounded an elderly man in Jerusalem yesterday before police opened fire killing one of them in the latest in almost two months of violence.

The attack was the first in Jerusalem in nearly two weeks after the majority of attacks targeting Israelis had shifted to the southern West Bank, where the army yesterday barred Palestinians from entering a large bloc of Jewish settlements.

The girls aged 14 and 16 used scissors to stab the 70-year-old man near the Mahane Yehuda market in the centre of Jerusalem, police said.

The victim was later identified as a Palestinian from the West Bank, possibly mistaken for an Israeli Jew.

He was admitted to hospital with minor injuries to the head and back, the Hadassah hospital said.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said "an officer who observed the event approached, fired accurately and neutralised the terrorists."

The 16-year-old was killed, the 14-year-old seriously wounded.

A 27-year-old Israeli security guard was also taken to hospital with an injury to his hand, apparently from shrapnel caused by the gunshots, a Hadassah spokeswoman said.

Mahane Yehuda is Jerusalem's best known market and a popular tourist attraction.

Meanwhile in the northern West Bank, a motorist hit an Israeli near the Shavei Shomron settlement in what may have been a deliberate attack, the army said.

"The civilian is lightly wounded and being evacuated to a hospital for further medical treatment. Forces are currently in pursuit of the driver who fled the scene," a statement said.

In the southern West Bank, the army prohibited Palestinians from entering 24 Jewish settlements after an Israeli woman was stabbed to death at a road junction in the area on Sunday.

Yesterday's restriction applied to the 22 settlements in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, as well as the nearby settlement towns of Efrat and Beitar Ilit, where an estimated 2,000 Palestinians work.

Gush Etzion, Efrat and Beitar Illit are home to some 92,000 Israelis.

Palestinians were being allowed to travel on the area's roads but not enter the settlements, which are gated and guarded, a military spokeswoman told AFP, without being able to say how long the measure would be in place.