An IDF checkpoint in the West Bank. Photo: Justin McIntosh via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – A Jewish man was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers on Tuesday, after he ran toward a female soldier with a knife at the Hizme checkpoint outside Jerusalem.

The 19-year-old man, from the Pisgat Zeev neighborhood in the Israeli capital, reportedly left a suicide note declaring he suffered from mental distress.

As the man charged forward brandishing a knife, he was called on to stop. When the assailant disregarded the warnings, a civilian security guard opened fire, killing him.

Several hours after the incident, a friend of the man who was shot gave the suicide note to police, saying he had been entrusted with it a few days earlier.

The note was addressed to the man’s mother, and contained an apology stating it would be his final communication, Israel’s Channel 2 reported. In the letter, the man said he could no longer lead a normal life in his distressed mental state and could not go on living.

Amid an uptick in terror attacks since the fall of 2015, six Palestinians reportedly suffering from mental illnesses have attempted to commit what is known as “suicide by soldier.” Tuesday’s incident was the first case of a Jew doing so.