The unidentified 20-year-old assailant allegedly stabbed two Israeli police officers Monday before being shot and incapacitated.

Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said a female police officer was stabbed in the neck and badly wounded while a male officer was moderately injured. Officers shot at the assailant and critically wounded him, she said.

The attack was outside the Herod's Gate entrance to the Old City and follows a spike in violence over the weekend. Four Palestinians, one of whom held Jordanian citizenship, were shot dead in recent days over alleged assaults on Israelis, according to Israeli authorities.

A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli army officer in the chest on Sunday outside a West Bank settlement before soldiers shot and wounded the attacker.

Some 227 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, one Jordanian, one Eritrean and a Sudanese have been killed in violence since October, according to a count by the AFP news agency.

Israeli forces say most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. But others were shot dead during demonstrations against Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Israel blames the deadly violence on incitement by Palestinian political and religious leaders. But Palestinian leaders argue the violence is rooted in nearly 50 years of military occupation by Israel and dwindling hopes for an independent Palestinian state.

jar/msh (AP, AFP)