Palestinian Attacker Tries to Stab Cops in Jerusalem Old City

Border guards shot dead an East Jerusalem woman who attempted to stab them outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City on Wednesday afternoon, police said.

None of the Border Police officers were reported injured in the incident.

According to police, the woman approached the officers with a scissors before they opened fire.

She was pronounced dead minutes later by medics from the Magen David Adom ambulance service, a spokesperson said.

The Palestinian Health Ministry later identified the assailant as Siham Rateb Nimir, 49, from East Jerusalem.

According to Palestinian media, her son was Mustafa Nimir, who was shot dead by Border Police officers in September after an apparent misunderstanding at an East Jerusalem checkpoint.

Officers recovered the scissors from the scene, police said.

Border guards closed off some the entrances and exits to the Old City following the incident and cleared the areas surrounding them, pushing back bystanders.

In the past year and a half, the Old City, and the Damascus Gate in particular, has seen several attacks by Palestinians, and in one case a Jordanian national.

Earlier this month, an East Jerusalem man stabbed two Border Police officers near the Old City's Lions' Gate, moderately wounding them before they were able to shoot him.

Israel's security services believe that many of the stabbing and car-ramming attacks seen in recent years are not only ideologically motivated, but are a form of "suicide by cop," or "suicide by soldier."

Though a marked drop has been recorded by security officials in recent months, 40 Israelis, two Americans, a Palestinian and an Eritrean national have been killed in the spate of stabbing, car-ramming and shooting attacks that began a year and a half ago.

According to AFP figures, some 250 Palestinians, a Jordanian and a Sudanese migrant have also been killed, most of them in the course of carrying out attacks, Israel says, and many of the others in clashes with troops in the West Bank and at the Gaza border, as well as in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket attacks.

The spate of Palestinian attacks that began in October 2015 was dubbed the "lone wolf" intifada, as many of the attacks were carried out by individuals who were not connected to any terror group.