JERUSALEM: Three Palestinians armed with rifles, knives and explosives attacked Israeli police outside Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday, killing one officer and wounding another before being shot dead.

The attack outside the Old City’s Damascus Gate was part of a four-month wave of violence, but was among the most severe in Jerusalem, where many assaults have involved knives.

The policewoman who died had been shot in the head, medical officials said.

According to Israeli authorities, the Palestinians were approached by border police for ID checks.

“As one was producing identification, his accomplices... started firing and stabbing and managed to wound two female officers,” a police statement said.

The surviving officer’s injuries were described as “moderate to serious”. Officers opened fire and killed the attackers, police said, adding that they were from the northern West Bank.

They were believed to be 19 to 20 years old.

Palestinian shopkeepers near the scene said they heard heavy gunfire. Security forces locked down the area afterwards as crowds gathered to see what happened or to try to return to their homes in the Old City.

Damascus Gate is frequently used by Palestinians to enter the Old City, though sometimes by tourists as well.

Mayor Nir Barkat told reporters at the scene that their arrival with weapons in Jerusalem meant that a further clampdown on access routes from the adjoining West Bank should be examined.

“We need to tighten (restrictions) on the places from which the threat comes,” he said.Israel occupied east Jerusalem, where Damascus Gate is located, in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

Major roads to and from the occupied West Bank pass through Israeli security checkpoints and a concrete wall runs through much of the area but the border is still porous in many places.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2016