JERUSALEM

Israeli forces shot dead a mentally disabled Palestinian in East Jerusalem on Saturday, according to Israeli media.

Border police officers opened fire on a man in Jerusalem's Old City after they suspected he had a gun, The Times of Israel newspaper reported.

In a statement, police said the Palestinian man was carrying "a suspicious object that looked like a pistol" and ran away when ordered to stop.

According to Israeli media, the man, who was found to be unarmed, was shot dead during the chase.

The family of the young man, who was identified as Iyad Elkhalak, a resident of East Jerusalem's neighborhood of Wadi Joz, has a mental disability.

For its part, Palestinian resistance group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, denounced the killing as a "terrorist behavior".

"The execution of a Palestinian man with special needs reflects the criminal and sadist behavior of the [Israeli] occupation," Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement.

"These crimes will always lead to fuel the revolution of the people, which will only stop with the departure of the occupation from all Palestinian lands," he said.

Saturday's shooting came a day after Israeli forces killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank for allegedly attempting to ram them with his vehicle. No Israelis were wounded in either incident.