Four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in separate incidents

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

Two Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces in Jenin -- 14-year-old Mohammed Samer Khalouf and 28-year-old Farouq Salameh -- while four others suffered gunshot wounds, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Hours earlier, a Palestinian who allegedly stabbed an Israeli officer was shot dead in Jerusalem's Old City.

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

According to the United Nations, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the start of the year, the heaviest toll in the occupied West Bank for nearly seven years.

'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 in Jerusalem 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.

Another 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.

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.