Man shot trying to seize soldier’s gun in Jerusalem market

A man was shot Friday afternoon after he tried to grab the weapon of an Israel Defense Forces soldier at the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, Israel Police said.

According to Channel 10, the man was shot in the legs by the soldier he had targeted. He reportedly sustained light wounds and was treated at the scene. Channel 10 said large number of police officers were dispatched to the scene.

Police initially said the incident was security-related and that an Arab man had attempted to seize the soldier’s weapon, but it later became clear that it was an altercation between two Jewish market traders.

There has been a series of attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians in recent weeks, as tensions spiraled over the July 31 arson attack on a Palestinian home in the West Bank village of Duma. Suspected Jewish terrorists threw firebombs into the residence of the Dawabsha family as they slept, killing the baby and father of the family and seriously wounding the mother and four-year-old boy.

On Wednesday, an IDF soldier sustained moderate wounds after a improvised explosive device was hurled at him at the entrance to an army base south of Jerusalem, near the West Bank settlement of Har Gilo.