An Israeli police officer shot dead a Palestinian teenager who stabbed and wounded a civilian at a light rail station in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening, Israeli police and medics said.

It is the latest incident among surging violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"A suspect armed with a knife committed a terrorist attack near Shivtei Israel light rail station in Jerusalem," Israeli police said in a statement.

"The suspect was neutralised on the spot," it said.

A border police officer who was travelling in a tram saw the attack as it happened and took action, the police said. He "promptly disembarked from the train and fired", hitting the suspect, they said.

Police spokesman Dean Elsdunne told AFP that the attacker was a "minor" from east Jerusalem, a predominantly Palestinian area. 

The 14-year-old attacker was from Beit Hanina neighbourhood in east Jerusalem and that medical officials had pronounced him dead, he said.

The Magen David Adom emergency service said it had treated a man aged around 25 who had been stabbed in the back. He was later taken to hospital.

The wounded man was in a "stable" condition, according to a statement issued by Shaare Zedek Hospital.

Dozens of Israeli security personnel converged on the station, where many ultra-Orthodox Jews dressed in black suits and white shirts were also gathered, an AFP correspondent reported. 

An AFP photographer saw the body of the attacker lying on the ground under a blanket.

Some security officers used ice to clean the site, where blood stains were still visible.

Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said the attacker had carried out a "heroic" operation at the tram station.

Under international law east Jerusalem is occupied territory.

About 230,000 Israelis live in annexed east Jerusalem, along with at least 360,000 Palestinians who want to make the sector the capital of their future independent state.

But Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have been stalled since 2014.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict so far has claimed the lives of at least 223 Palestinians this year.

At least 31 Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian have also been killed this year, according to an AFP tally based on official sources on both sides.

They include, on the Palestinian side, combatants as well as civilians and, on the Israeli side, three members of the Arab minority.

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