Jerusalem, Aug 20 (IANS): A Palestinian teenager who attempted to carry out a knife attack was shot dead by Israeli Border Police in the West Bank, the police said.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement that the 17-year-old boy approached a group of Border Police officers on Saturday afternoon and pulled a knife from his bag to stab them, Xinhua news agency reported.

Another officer opened fire at him, Samri said. The guard sustained light wounds as a result of "friendly fire" but he was not stabbed by the teen.

The incident occurred at the Taphuah Junction, a major crossroad in the central Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The incident was the latest in a wave of violence that have claimed the lives of at least 294 Palestinians and 47 Israelis since September 2015.

Israel charges that most of the Palestinian fatalities were killed during knife, gun, or car-ramming attacks or as they tried to perpetrate such an attack.

The violence has decreased in recent months but tensions around the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem triggered a new escalation in the violence.