Palestinian shot dead as he kills one Israeli

JERUSALEM, Nov 21 (AP): A Palestinian assailant killed one Israeli and injured four others before being fatally shot by Israeli police near the entrance to a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site Sunday, police said.

Police said the attack took place near an entrance to a contested flashpoint shrine known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Violence surrounding the site, which is considered holy by both faiths, has triggered previous rounds of fighting between Israel and the Palestinians, most recently in May.

Paramedics said one person suffered critical injuries, one suffered serious wounds, and three others were lightly injured. Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital later said the critically injured person died. The paramedics said the Palestinian attacker was confirmed dead at the scene.

Police said two of those lightly injured were officers and identified the attacker as an east Jerusalem resident in his 40s. Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev told reporters the gunman was a member of Hamas's political arm from the Shuafat refugee camp in east Jerusalem, and that the man's wife left the country three days earlier.

The Hamas militant group praised the attack in a statement but stopped short of claiming responsibility, calling the incident a "heroic operation."

"Our people's resistance will continue to be legitimate by all means and tools against the Zionist occupier until our desired goals are achieved and the occupation is expelled from our holy sites and all of our lands," spokesman Abdel Latif al-Qanou said.