Palestinian shot after knife attack on Israeli soldiers in West Bank

A Palestinian has been shot at Gush Etzion junction in the West Bank after lightly injuring an Israeli soldier in a knife attack.

"A Palestinian female youth attempted to stab an [Israeli] soldier at the Gush Etzion junction which left an Israeli citizen  with extremely minor wounds that didn't require transferring him for treatment," Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement, adding that the "Israeli army forces fired at her [the Palestinian youth]".

Eyewitnesses had earlier confirmed that a Palestinian woman in her 20s was shot by the Israeli troops near the Gush Etzion junction.

Some reports have claimed she was killed, although this is unconfirmed.

The Israeli army sealed the roads surrounding the site of the incident and deployed large forces around it, eyewitnesses had said.

The Palestinian has been identified as Amal Taqatqah from the town Beit Fajjar, eight kilometre south of Bethlehem.

She had previously spend four months in prison for throwing stones in 2011.

The attack marks the latest in a spate of violence in East Jerusalem, prompted in large part by repeated incursion by Jewish nationalists into Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount, which is regarded as holy to both Jews and Muslims.

The arrest of Taqatqah's father by Israeli soldiers has reportedly sparked off clashes in Beit Fajjar, with security services firing tear gas on demonstrators.

Gush Etzion has been the site of a number of violent and controversial incidents in 2014.

Tension has run high in the region since late October, when Israel briefly closed the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem after an extremist rabbi was shot and injured by a Palestinian man in West Jerusalem.

The shooting suspect was subsequently killed by Israeli forces in a raid on his East Jerusalem home.

Further aggravating the situation, a handful of Israeli MPs and scores of Jewish settlers have forced their way into the mosque complex in recent weeks, drawing the ire of Muslim worshippers and official condemnation from Arab and Muslim countries.

Since then, several Israelis have been killed and injured in a spate of attacks by Palestinians – both inside Israel and in the occupied territories.

For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

In September 2000, a visit to Al-Aqsa by controversial Israeli politician Ariel Sharon triggered what later became known as the "Second Intifada," a popular uprising against Israel's decades-long occupation in which thousands of Palestinians were killed.