Three Israelis stabbed in Jerusalem, two Palestinian attackers shot

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli police shot dead one Palestinian and wounded another after the two went on a stabbing spree along a popular walkway in Jerusalem on Wednesday, wounding at least three people in what authorities called a terrorist attack.

The stabbings took place right outside the Jaffa Gate, one of the main entrances to Jerusalem's walled Old City.

"There were two terrorists. One was shot and killed. The second was shot and apprehended," said Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. Three Israelis were seriously injured during the attack, according to emergency medical workers.

A campaign of stabbings, shootings and car-rammings by Palestinians has killed 19 Israelis and a U.S. citizen since October. Israeli forces or armed civilians have killed at least 118 Palestinians, 70 of whom authorities described as assailants, while others died in clashes with security forces.

Palestinians are frustrated at the collapse in April 2014 of long-running peace talks with Israel and its 48-year occupation of the West Bank where they seek an independent state.

Bloodshed has also been fueled by Muslim opposition to stepped-up Israeli access to Jerusalem's al Aqsa mosque complex, which many Jews revere as a vestige of their biblical temples and is also Islam's holiest site outside Saudi Arabia.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Mark Heinrich)