Four Israeli soldiers were killed when they were run down by a truck in Jerusalem today in what police were treating as a deliberate attack, a medic at the scene said.

Arie Jaffe, of the United Hatzalah emergency service, said the driver was also killed in the incident in west Jerusalem.

Palestinian security officials in the West Bank city of Ramallah said he was a Palestinian from the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Jabal Mukaber, close to the scene.

Since October 2015, 247 Palestinians, 40 Israelis, two Americans, a Jordanian, an Eritrean and a Sudanese have been killed in a wave of violence, according to an AFP count.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities. Others were shot dead during protests or clashes, while some died in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

Police quoted rescue services as saying that 15 Israelis were injured, one seriously, in today's ramming.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the victims were in a group of soldiers alighting from a bus at the promenade, which has a scenic view down onto the Old City.

The bus driver said they had been on a cultural tour of the city. Rosenfeld said that suddenly the lorry driver "ran his vehicle into them. At this moment of time we have ruled out an accident."