Palestinian kills Israeli near Jerusalem: police

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Palestinian stabbed and killed an Israeli civilian and wounded a policeman in a Jewish settlement near Jerusalem Thursday, police said.

The attacker was shot and wounded by the policeman he stabbed and taken to hospital.

The incident occurred in the settlement of Gilo, in the occupied West Bank, near Jerusalem.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said two police officers on patrol in Gilo had stopped an Arab for questioning on the street and he then pulled out a knife and stabbed one of them.

"The (wounded) policeman fired at the terrorist, but he continued to attack and stabbed a 60-year-old passerby, before he was apprehended," Rosenfeld said.

Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco said the Israeli man died of his wounds in hospital.

The Magen David ambulance service said the Palestinian attacker and the policeman sustained moderate injuries.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in Gilo, built on land that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and considers to be a neighborhood of Jerusalem.

(Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Diana Abdallah)