The British-born Israeli woman stabbed in what Israeli police have suggested was a terrorist attack has said she survived the ordeal by pretending to be unconscious.

Kaye Susan Wilson, who moved to Israel in 1991, said that she and an American friend, who died from her wounds, were attacked by two Arab men with a knife while hiking in a forest near Jerusalem.

Ms Wilson, a tour guide, was showing her American friend, Kristine Luken, archaeological sites in the area when two men approached them asking for water. She said one of the men pulled out what appeared to be a sharp bread knife, then bound her arms and stabbed her 12 times.

From her hospital bed in Jerusalem the 46-year-old said that before stabbing her one of the men removed the star of David necklace she was wearing.

Ms Wilson said she survived and escaped to a car park by pretending to be asleep.

She told Ynet: “They came to kill. Nobody walks around with a knife like that for no reason."

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the incident was being looked at as a possible terrorist attack.

He said: "The main line that we're looking at is that it's a nationalistically-motivated attack, but we haven't ruled out possible criminal motives.”