A Palestinian woman injured an Israeli soldier in a car-ramming attack in the occupied West Bank on Friday before troops at the scene shot her dead, the army said.

"An assailant rammed her car into a soldier guarding the Gush Etzion junction," it said in a statement. "Forces on site, responding to the imminent threat, shot the attacker, resulting in her death. A knife was found in the assailant's car."

Jerusalem's Shaarei Tzedek hospital, where the soldier was taken, described his injury as "light".

Gush Etzion junction, a major intersection near a large block of Israeli settlements in the southern West bank, is a major hub for hitchhiking soldiers and settlers on the road between Hebron and Jerusalem.

A wave of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories since October has killed 181 Palestinians as well as 28 Israelis, an American, a Sudanese and an Eritrean, according to an AFP toll.

Most of the Palestinians who died in the violence were killed by Israeli forces while carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

Others were shot dead by Israeli forces during clashes or demonstrations.
Source: AFP