RAMALLAH, GAZA: A Palestinian who ran at Israeli troops with a knife in the flashpoint city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday was shot dead by soldiers, Israel’s army said. The Palestinian health ministry confirmed the death but provided no details on the incident, saying only the “Israeli occupation opened fire on him.” The incident started near an Israeli military post, the army said. “Soldiers identified a terrorist armed with a knife running toward them,” a spokeswoman said. A physical confrontation followed, “then he ran toward a nearby building while still armed with a knife,” she said. “The soldiers then fired toward him, thwarted the attack and he was killed.” No soldiers were wounded, the spokeswoman said. Palestinians have launched sporadic attacks against Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank. Israeli forces have been accused of responding with excessive force in some instances. Tensions run particularly high in Hebron, where several hundred Israeli settlers live in the city center under heavy army protection among around 200,000 Palestinians. It is also the location of a key holy site known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque and to Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs. In Gaza, a Palestinian shot by Israeli forces in clashes on the border nearly two weeks ago has succumbed to his wounds, the enclave’s health ministry said Tuesday. Mousa Mohammed Mousa, 23, was injured on March 1 in clashes along the border, ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said in a statement. He told AFP Mousa had been shot in the back east of Al-Bureij in central Gaza. For nearly a year, protesters have been gathering along the frontier in often violent protests calling for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to be allowed to return to former homes now inside Israel. Israeli officials say that amounts to calling for the Jewish state’s destruction, and accuse the Gaza Strip’s rulers Hamas of orchestrating the protests. At least 255 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the movement began in March 2018, the majority shot during weekly border demonstrations and clashes. Others have been hit by tank fire or air strikes in response to violence from Gaza, including projectiles fired at Israeli towns and incendiary kites targeting farmland across the frontier. Two Israeli soldiers have been killed over the same period. Israel and Hamas, which has controlled the blockaded Gaza Strip for over a decade, have fought three wars since 2008.