JERUSALEM – A Palestinian assailant stabbed and wounded an Israeli civilian near the Old City of Jerusalem on Saturday afternoon, before approaching two Israeli policemen who shot at the assailant, threw him to the ground and then killed while lying on the road, videos of the confrontation showed.

The knife attack was at least the fifth in Jerusalem since early September, bringing memories back to 2015-16, when dozens of Israelis were stabbed by Palestinians in what some have called the “Knife Intifada”. a reference to previous Palestinian uprisings against the Israeli occupation. It also follows the murder of an Israeli tour guide by a Palestinian gunman last month, and a spike in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The nature of the assailant’s death on Saturday led to accusations that Israeli police killed him after he was shot and incapacitated.

In a video from the scene, which does not include footage of the initial attack, the dagger was shot three times after falling to the ground. The recording also appears to show a third policeman signaling his colleagues to stop shooting. The two officers, Israeli border guards, were investigated, state broadcaster reported.

The incident raised fears of renewed unrest in East Jerusalem, at the center of one of the most intractable problems in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Old City, which lies just inside East Jerusalem, is home to Judaism’s holiest site, the Temple Mount and the Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest places in Islam.

Israel took East Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967 and then annexed it. But the Palestinians see it as occupied territory and hope that it will one day become the capital of a Palestinian state.

Disputes over Palestinian land rights in East Jerusalem, coupled with several Israeli raids on the grounds of the Aqsa Mosque, led Hamas, the militant Islamist group in Gaza, to fire rockets at the city in May, triggering an 11-day war with Israel. Following Saturday’s incident, a Hamas leader condemned the nature of the attacker’s murder, Palestinian media reported.

Silently pictures of the incident Freed by the Israeli government, the attacker calmly walked through a crosswalk leading to a square next to the Damascus Gate, a major entry point into the Old City and a hotbed of Palestinian community life in Jerusalem. Reaching a traffic block, he suddenly turned and repeatedly stabbed an ultra-Orthodox Jew behind him.

The victim was identified in Israeli media as Avraham Elmaliah, a 20-year-old who prayed at the Western Wall, one of the last parts of an ancient Jewish temple.

The assailant was identified by Israeli state television station as Muhammad Salima, a Palestinian from the occupied West Bank who had served a prison sentence for incitement.

The footage showed Mr. Salima attempting to stab an approaching policeman, before running to a second nearby policeman. At least one of the police then shot him and was seen to fall to the ground. A second video, filmed from a passing car, showed that the assailant subsequently received at least three bullets after falling.

Asked by Israeli media at the hospital, Mr. Elmaliah thanked the police for intervening. “They saved me,” he reportedly told Yediot Ahronoth, an Israeli newspaper. “Without them, I wouldn’t be here today.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also defended the police.

“Both fighters took very swift and determined action, as expected from the Israeli police, when they were confronted with a terrorist who attempted to assassinate an Israeli civilian,” Bennett said. said on social networks. “I want to express my full support to them. This is how we expect our fighters to act, and this is how they acted. We must not allow our capital to become a hotbed of terrorism.

But Ahmed Tibi, lawmaker in the Israeli Parliament and Arab citizen of Israel, called the episode “a cold-blooded execution” of a wounded man “who presented no danger to anyone”.

Mr. Tibi added, “This is a criminal act that requires investigation.

Carol Sutherland contributed reporting from Moshav Ben Ami, Israel.