Israeli Guards Wound Suspected Palestinian Attacker

Israeli private security guards at an east Jerusalem checkpoint on Tuesday shot and wounded an 18-year-old Palestinian suspected of planning to stab them, Israeli police said.

"At the Qalandia checkpoint a young Arab woman... started to run toward the guards, who several times ordered her to stop," a police statement said.

"When she did not comply and drew close to them they fired at her legs and neutralized her," it said.

She was found to have been carrying a knife in her bag, it added.

Violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel since last October has killed at least 217 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese, according to an AFP count.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

Others were shot dead during protests and clashes, while some were killed by Israeli air strikes on the Islamist-controlled Gaza Strip.

The police statement said the woman, from nearby Kufr Akab village, was lightly wounded and treated by paramedics.

Police said clashes erupted at the scene but security forces restored order. No injuries were reported.

Earlier Tuesday there were clashes at neighboring Qalandia village -- which straddles the line between east Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied West Bank -- after Israel destroyed 11 Palestinian homes there.

Israeli authorities did not respond to requests for information on the demolitions, but such cases are usually said to be because the owners did not have building permits.

Such permits are however nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain in the part of the West Bank under full Israeli control, and extremely rare in east Jerusalem.