JERUSALEM — Israeli soldiers have shot dead a Jewish Israeli man mistaken for a Palestinian attacker less than a week after an Eritrean refugee – also mistaken for a Palestinian attacker – was murdered.

A sense of paranoia has gripped Israel and the occupied territories in recent weeks amid renewed violence which has seen Israeli forces kill at least 52 Palestinians including unarmed protesters, bystanders and suspected attackers. Eight Israelis have died in Palestinian attacks. 

According to Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, the victim of the latest killing late on Wednesday refused to provide the soldiers with his identity card, started to punch them and attempted to seize one of their weapons. He was shot dead on the scene. 

Yehuda Meshi Zahav, a member of the ZAKA emergency medical team called to the scene, told the local Jerusalem Post he had also mistaken the man for a Palestinian. 

“I wanted to cover the body in a black bag [reserved for alleged attackers],” he said. “After I was asked to take care of the body I saw that he was a Jew and that it was mistake to speak of a terrorist. I immediately notified the police and we switched to a white ZAKA body bag.”

Wednesday’s killing came just days after Haftum Zarhum, an Eritrean asylum seeker, was killed after being shot by a security guard and lynched by an Israeli mob. 

On Sunday night, Zarhum was shot by a security who had mistaken him for the accomplice of a Palestinian attacker. An Israeli rabble, including a soldier, kicked him, beat him with chairs and slammed a bench on his head.