Hamas member shot dead after he rams minivan into train platform in east Jerusalem

A Palestinian man was shot dead by police in Jerusalem after ramming a minivan into a crowded train platform killing one person and injuring 13.

The militant Hamas group took responsibility for the attack - the second in east Jerusalem in the past two weeks - which escalated tensions between Arabs and Jews in the city.

After the man's vehicle came to a halt he was seen attacking people with an iron bar before being shot dead by officers.

Earlier yesterday, Israeli police had dispersed dozens of masked Palestinians who threw rocks and firecrackers near a contested holy site in Jerusalem's Old City. Neighbouring Jordan called back its ambassador to Israel for consultations in a gesture of protest over the violence in east Jerusalem.

Police said the motorist slammed his white minivan into the train platform, backed out and drove away, hitting several cars along the way. He then got out and attacked a group of civilians and police officers on the side of the road with a metal bar before he was shot and killed. Security camera footage appeared to show him darting about a crowded intersection before he was shot. Police identified the attacker as Ibrahim al-Akri, a 38-year-old Palestinian, and said he had recently been released from prison after serving time for security offences.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said al-Akri was a member of the group and that his brother was in exile in Turkey after being released in a 2011 prisoner swap. Hamas' West Bank commander, Saleh Arouri, is based in Turkey.

It said that al-Akri, "whose blood watered the land of the occupied holy city of Jerusalem, preferred to retaliate for the blood of his people and the sacredness of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem".