An Arab man detained by Israeli police near a flashpoint mosque compound in Jerusalem grabbed an officer's gun and fired it, prompting the unit to shoot him dead, the force said on Saturday, describing the incident as a terrorist attack.
The incident overnight at the edge of the Al Aqsa Mosque complex, an icon of Palestinian nationalism, came at a high point of Muslim attendance for the holy month of Ramadan.
The sacred site, known to Muslims as The Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, remained relatively quiet on Saturday.
The dead man was identified as 26-year-old medical student Mohammed al-Asibi, a resident of the Bedouin village of Hura, in southern Israel.
Asibi's family has disputed the police account of his death and demanded to see CCTV footage, local media said, with police saying there was none.
The shooting occurred hours after tens of thousands of Palestinians had packed the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the second Friday of Ramadan for peaceful prayers.
Israeli police said more than 100,000 faithful had gathered to pray at Islam's third holiest site, built on what Jews call the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site.
More than 2,000 police officers had been deployed throughout the city.
Lawmaker Mansour Abbas, whose United Arab List party is popular in that area, said he was a medical student and questioned the police account.
Reuters could not immediately verify the account independently. Police said the incident took place at a spot not covered by security cameras. Footage of similar incidents in the past has usually surfaced within a short time.
Israeli-Palestinian tensions are simmering after months of violence in areas of Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank and friction at Al Aqsa has often set off violence in recent years.
US-brokered peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in a 1967 war, have stalled for almost a decade and show no sign of resumption.