Jerusalem (AFP) - Two Israeli policewomen were injured in annexed east Jerusalem on Wednesday when they were hit by a car driven by a Palestinian who was then shot dead, police said.

It was the latest in a string of lone-wolf attacks by Palestinians using cars to ram pedestrians or police, a trend which began in Jerusalem in October but has also spread to the West Bank.

The incident took place in A-Tur on the Mount of Olives, with police spokeswoman Luba Samri saying the driver veered off the road and struck two border police officers, both of them female.

They had earlier been identified as male officers.

"Another border policeman opened fire at the terrorist and neutralised him," Samri said, confirming that the driver had died.

The two policewomen were moderately injured and taken to different hospitals in the city, she said.

The driver was identified by relatives as 41-year-old Imran Abu Dheim from the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Jabal Mukaber.

"We're absolutely stunned by what's happened," a cousin of the driver told AFP, describing him as a very quiet man with five adult children.

"It was an accident and when he tried to reverse, they killed him," he said, citing eyewitnesses.

Israel seized the eastern Arab sector of the city during the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.