Israeli settler kills Palestinian who attempted stabbing, army says

The Israeli military said an armed Israeli settler shot dead a Palestinian man who it said tried to carry out a stabbing attack in a settlement in the occupied West Bank on Friday.

The military said an unidentified man infiltrated the gated area in the southern West Bank near the city of Hebron and tried to stab a resident before being "neutralized". There were no Israeli casualties and soldiers were scanning the area, it said.

The Palestinian health ministry said it was informed by the unit that coordinates civilian affairs with Israel of a Palestinian man who was shot dead "by the occupation" south of Hebron.

Local media said the incident occurred as people in the settlement of Teneh Omarim were gathering for prayers for the Jewish Shavuot festival.

The Israeli military alerted settlers there to remain indoors and lock their doors shortly before 10 a.m. (0700 GMT) in a message sent via its app.

A video obtained by Reuters showed a man slipping underneath a closed metal gate. In another video, soldiers were seen sealing a synagogue with red tape.

Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged for over a year, with frequent Israeli military raids and settler violence in the West Bank amid a spate of Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

Since January, more than 140 Palestinians and at least 19 Israelis and foreigners have been killed.

Israel occupied the West Bank, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state, in the 1967 Middle East war. US-sponsored statehood talks have been frozen since 2014 while Israel has maintained military rule over millions of Palestinians and continued to expand Jewish settlements.