The death raised to five the number of alleged attackers – four Palestinians and a Jordanian – killed since Friday in incidents in which Israeli authorities said at least nine Israelis have been wounded.
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The Palestinian health ministry named the man killed as Hatem al-Shaloudi, 25.
Previously there had not been an attack in three weeks. He then waved the knives in the air and shouted “Allahu akbar” – or “God is great” in Arabic – as he rushed at the officers, who opened fire and killed him.
The man was carrying both a Jordanian and a Palestinian ID, police said.
Less than an hour later, a auto carrying two Palestinians was rammed into a bus stop near the Kiryat Arba settlement outside Hebron.
As a flare-up of a almost year-old wave of Palestinian street attacks entered a second day, the military said Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian who stabbed and wounded a soldier in the West Bank on Saturday.
Hebron, which contains the Cave of the Patriarchs/Ibrahimi Mosque, is divided between Israeli and Palestinian Authority control.
Israel blames the violence on a campaign of incitement by Palestinian political and religious leaders compounded on social media sites that glorify attackers as heroes and encourage more attacks.
But Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, said a wave of renewed violence that ignited a year ago was “bred from almost five decades of Israeli occupation” and the result of “fear, humiliation, frustration and mistrust” among Palestinians.
Since last September, Palestinians have killed 34 Israelis in stabbing, vehicle ramming and shooting attacks.
Ban also hailed former Israeli president Shimon Peres, the last of Israel’s founding fathers, who suffered a major stroke this week.
Palestinians have accused Israel of using excessive force and say some of those killed posed no threat or had no intention of attacking anyone.
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“Israel is flagrantly employing a systematic and willful policy of summary executions against the Palestinian people; such provocative acts are in direct violation of global law and conventions”, Ashrawi said.
