Four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in separate incidents

Four Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces Thursday, including an alleged attacker, medics and security officials said, as violence flared across Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

Two Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces in Jenin, while four others suffered gunshot wounds, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The deaths were announced as the Israeli army said it was carrying out a raid in the northern West Bank city, hours after a Palestinian who allegedly stabbed an Israeli officer was shot dead in Jerusalem's Old City.

A fourth Palestinian was killed earlier Thursday in clashes with Israeli forces northwest of Jerusalem.

The latest killings came two days after an Israeli general election and amid what the UN says is the deadliest period in years in the West Bank, with near daily army raids and an increase in clashes and attacks on Israeli forces.

Israel's military said it was "currently operating in the Jenin camp" for refugees, but did not comment on the man shot dead when contacted by AFP.

The Islamic Jihad militant group named one of those killed as Farouq Salameh, describing him as one of their fighters.

Earlier on Thursday an assailant was shot dead by Israeli police in Jerusalem's Old City, after being stopped for inspection according to the force.

He then "stabbed one of the officers in the upper body" and was shot dead by two other officers, a police statement said.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the assailant was local resident 20-year-old Amer Bader.

'Firebomb'

The incident in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem happened beside a checkpoint for Muslim worshippers visiting the nearby Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam's third holiest site, which is known by Jews as the Temple Mount.

Shaare Zedek hospital said they were treating a man suffering a stab wound to the torso in moderate condition, and another man who was lightly wounded by a gunshot to the leg, likely from shots fired by police.

A third police officer was lightly wounded after being hit by fragments during the incident, Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital said.

Israeli forces sealed off surrounding streets while a forensics team photographed the scene, beside a stall loaded with bread.

Mourners meanwhile gathered in the West Bank village of Beit Duqqu for the funeral of a 42-year-old man killed in clashes with Israeli forces.

Israeli border police said officers shot dead a suspect "with a firebomb in his hand" in Beit Duqqu, northwest of Jerusalem.

At least 34 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed across east Jerusalem and the West Bank since the start of October, according to an AFP tally.

The surge in violence prompted a weeks-long lockdown of the West Bank city of Nablus, which the Israeli military said was lifted on Thursday.

The closure imposed on October 11 had restricted travel in and out of the city for around 200,000 Palestinians, disrupting daily life, the local economy and access to medical care and education.