Israel moves to destroy Jerusalem attacker's home

Palestinians stand behind a police barricade as an Israeli police dog sniffs at the Damascus Gate near the attack site in the Old City of Jerusalem on March 18, 2018. Abir Sultan / EPA

Israeli forces are preparing to demolish the West Bank home of a Palestinian who killed a Jewish man in Jerusalem's Old City before being shot dead, the army said on Monday.

Abdul Rahmani Faddal, 28, stabbed Adiel Kolman in the torso on Sunday evening before being shot by police. Kolman died of his wounds a few hours later in a Jerusalem hospital.

"Following the stabbing attack yesterday in Jerusalem in which Adiel Kolman was killed, troops … surveyed the terrorist's house in Aqraba before demolition," the army said.

"In addition, the terrorist's family members were questioned."

Kolman, 32, was a father of four from Kokhav Hashahar settlement.

Read more: Israeli stabbed in Jerusalem's Old City, attacker shot dead

The attack came after a Friday car ramming by a Palestinian near Jenin in the northern West Bank that the army said killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded two others.

Tensions were high after Palestinian movement Hamas called for a day of rage on Friday to mark 100 days since US President Donald Trump's controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

In Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, suspected Jewish extremists punctured tyres on Palestinian-owned cars and scrawled religious and anti-Arab graffiti on vehicles and homes, police said on Monday.

Images released by the police showed slogans including "there's no room in Israel for foreigners and enemies of God" and "the Arabs of Jerusalem are terrorists who should be expelled or killed".

The incident, near the Pisgat Zeev settlement neighbourhood, was being investigated, police said.

Also on Monday, an Israeli soldier convicted of manslaughter for shooting dead a prone Palestinian assailant had his sentence reduced by a third Monday by a military parole board.

Elor Azaria was initially sentenced to 18 months in prison for the 2016 killing of Abdul Fatah Al Sharif in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.

Israeli military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot later reduced the term by four months. Azaria is now due to be released on May 10, the military said.

It did not provide details on the parole board's ruling on Azaria, who was 19 at the time of the shooting in 2016.

Prisoners in Israel often have their sentences cut by a third for good behaviour. Azaria began serving his sentence on August 9.

The March 2016 shooting was caught on video by a human rights group and spread widely online.

It showed Sharif, 21, lying wounded on the ground, shot along with another Palestinian after stabbing and wounding a soldier, according to the army.

Some 11 minutes after the initial shooting, Azaria, a sergeant and military medic at the time of the incident, shot him in the head without any apparent provocation.

He said he feared Sharif was wearing an explosive belt and could blow himself up, a claim judges rejected.

The trial captivated Israel and highlighted deep divisions in public opinion between those who denounce the shooting and others who say it was justified.

Top military brass strongly denounced Azaria's actions, but right-wing politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called for him to be pardoned.