Sky News:

US Tourist Dead Stabbed To Death In Israel
Sarah Gordon, Sky News Online

An American tourist has been found dead near Jerusalem after she and a British-born Israeli friend were attacked and stabbed while hiking in a forest.

A large-scale hunt by police and military was launched after British-born Kaye Susan Wilson was discovered tied up and suffering from multiple stab wounds in the town of Beit Shemesh.

She told police she had been assaulted by two Arab men and that her American friend, Christine Logan, had been dragged away.

Police investigators believe the two women, both in their 40s, were victims of a terror attack.

Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said: "We are still looking at all directions in the investigation, but the main direction now is that it was a nationalistically motivated attack."

Referring to Ms Wilson, he added: "Her hands were tied, she was stabbed in the upper part of her body, she claimed that two Arabs stabbed her."

The Briton, who emigrated to Israel in the 1990s, is recovering in intensive care in hospital, but has been declared "out of danger".

Speaking to Israeli website Ynet about the attack, Ms Wilson said: "One of them pulled out a very long knife, like a bread knife with a sharpened edge.

"They stabbed me 12 times. They came to kill. Nobody walks around with a knife like that for no reason."

She believes she only escaped with her life because she pretended to be dead.

Once her attackers had left, she managed to stagger to a nearby road where passers-by called the authorities.

It is not the first time hikers have been attacked in the West Bank. In 2007, two off-duty soldiers were shot and killed and in the 1990s four Israelis were killed in two separate attacks.