JERUSALEM: Israeli police on Saturday shot dead an Arab man who they said grabbed a gun from an officer and fired it in a scuffle at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque compound.
The dead man was identified as 26-year-old medical student Mohammed al-Asibi, a resident of the Bedouin village of Hura, in southern Israel.
Asibi’s family has disputed the police account of his death and demanded to see CCTV footage, local media said, with police saying there was none.
The incident follows a relative lull in violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the start of Ramazan, and comes amid fears of a flare-up during the holy month.
In a statement, police said Asibi was stopped near the Chain Gate, an access point to the Al Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
As he was being questioned, the statement said, Asibi “suddenly attacked one of the policemen”, grabbing his gun and firing it.
“In a swift response of the officers who were in danger and struggling with the terrorist, they shot him,” added the, saying medics later pronounced him dead.
Passers-by reported hearing gunfire, and a photographer saw scores of Israeli police deployed in the Old City.
Raam, the Israeli parliament’s Islamist party, rejected the police’s account of events, noting in a Facebook post the claims from “witnesses” who said Asibi came to aid a woman who was in a scuffle with police.
Mansour Abbas, Raam’s head, questioned the authorities’ response that there was no footage of the alleged attack.
