IDF: Knife-wielding Palestinian attacks Israeli troops, is shot dead

A Palestinian assailant was shot dead by Israeli troops as he attempted to stab them next to a pop-up military checkpoint north of Jerusalem on Tuesday, the army said.

The Palestinian man approached the soldiers during a security check along the road between the Jewish settlement of Adam and the Palestinian city of Qalandiya in the central West Bank. When he tried to stab them, the Israeli force "responded with gunfire," the army said.

The alleged assailant died of his wounds, the army added. The Palestinian Health Ministry later identified him as Bahaa Samir al-Harbawi, 23, from al-Azariya, a village near Jerusalem.

No Israeli soldiers were reported injured in the attempt.

The incident comes days after a trio of Palestinian men carried out an attack in the Old City of Jerusalem and killed a Border Police officer, 23-year-old Hadas Malka.

The month of Ramadan is seen as a particularly tense period in the West Bank and Israel. Last year saw the deadly Sarona Market terror attack, in which four people were killed and over a dozen were wounded, take place during Ramadan.

Since September 2015, mainly Palestinian assailants have killed 43 Israelis, two visiting Americans, a Palestinian man and a British student, mainly in stabbing, shooting and vehicular attacks. In that time, some 250 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, a majority of them attackers, according to authorities.

The Israeli government has blamed the terrorism and violence on incitement by Palestinian political and religious leaders compounded on social media sites that glorify violence and encourage attacks.