JERUSALEM, Dec 22 — Israeli police shot dead a man who had fired a gun towards officers in Jerusalem's Old City yesterday, police said.

Palestinian and Israeli media identified the man as a Palestinian from near the city of Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials.

The man fired towards a group of officers at a security post in the walled Old City, a police spokeswoman said in a statement. Police chased the man on foot “while firing at him and (he) was neutralised,” it said.

The incident occurred near one of the entrances to the Old City's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, an area revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and by Jews as the Temple Mount.

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The Old City and other parts of East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and Palestinians hope will be part of a future state, have seen sporadic Palestinian street attacks on Israelis since US-sponsored peace talks broke down in 2014. — Reuters