A knife attack by a Palestinian in a West Bank settlement on Thursday killed one Israeli and wounded two others, while the assailant was shot dead, authorities said. 

 

The 17-year-old attacker entered the Adam settlement near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Thursday evening, Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said.

 

"A terrorist infiltrated into (the Adam settlement) and stabbed three civilians," the army said in a statement.

 

"The terrorist was shot and killed," it added.

 

One of the wounded, a 31-year-old, later died from his injuries after having arrived at hospital in critical condition, the hospital treating him announced.

 

A 58-year-old victim was said to be seriously wounded but stable. The third victim, who also shot the Palestinian, was slightly wounded in the leg.

 

Conricus said the attacker, from the Palestinian village of Kobar, had been shot by a civilian who was passing at the time and witnessed the incident.

 

The Palestinian managed to jump the fence of the settlement and stab two passersby, Israeli media reported. 

 

Lone Palestinian attackers have carried out multiple deadly stabbings and car-rammings against Israelis in recent years.

 

The last stabbing attack in a West Bank settlement was in April 2018, when a Palestinian tried to stab an Israeli with a screwdriver near a petrol station in an industrial area connected to the Maale Adumim settlement east of Jerusalem. 

 

- Gaza tensions -Thursday's attack comes amid recurrent violence between the Israeli army and Palestinian groups in the besieged Gaza Strip, but the West Bank has remained relatively calm.

 

Earlier in the day, Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which rules Gaza, promised revenge after Israeli strikes on the coastal enclave killed three of its members.

 

Israel said the artillery fire late Wednesday was in retaliation for shots fired at troops along the border that injured one soldier.

 

"The enemy shall pay a high price in blood for the crime which it commits daily against the rights of our people and our fighters," said the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

 

The flare-up came five days after the United Nations and Egypt brokered a deal to halt a July 20 surge in violence that claimed the lives of four Palestinians and an Israeli soldier -- the first killed in the area since the last war in Gaza in 2014.

 

On Tuesday, Israel partially reopened its only goods crossing with the Gaza Strip, after a two-week closure prompted by border tensions and incendiary kites had sparked fears of a severe fuel shortage in the blockaded Palestinian enclave.

 

Tensions along the Gaza border increased in late March when Palestinians launched a mass protest movement. 

 

At least 149 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israeli fire since March 30. 

 

Israel says its blockade is necessary to keep Hamas from obtaining weapons or materials that could be used for military purposes.

 

But UN officials and rights groups have repeatedly called for the blockade to be lifted, citing worsening humanitarian conditions in the enclave, home to two million people.