A man wielding a knife entered an Israeli border police base in annexed east Jerusalem provoking a scuffle in which four officers were wounded, police said on Thursday.

The assailant was seriously wounded as he was overpowered by officers during the rare attack inside a security force base late on Wednesday, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.

The attacker, who was not immediately identified, had scaled a fence around the base between the Palestinian neighbourhood of Jabel Mukabar and the settler district of Armon Hanatziv before being spotted.

Rosenfeld did not confirm local media reports that one of the officers was wounded by shots fired at the assailant.

A wave of stabbing attacks against Israelis by lone-wolf Palestinian assailants erupted in 2015 but have since become sporadic.

Israel occupied east Jerusalem in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.