A Palestinian stabbed and lightly wounded an Israeli border guard in the West Bank on Thursday, and was shot dead by another guard, police and the army said.

"A Palestinian attacked and stabbed a soldier... in Hebron. Security forces responded and shot the attacker. The soldier sustained light injuries and is receiving emergency medical care," the army said.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld confirmed that the attacker, aged 24, had died.

The attack took place near a shrine revered by both Muslims and Jews as the burial place of the prophet Abraham in the volatile city of Hebron, where several knife attacks occurred in recent days.

A wave of such knife attacks and shootings has left nine Israelis dead since early October.

The death of the attacker takes the number of Palestinians killed in the unrest to 61. Many of those killed have been gunned down in anti-Israeli protests.

One Israeli Arab attacker has also been shot dead.

Shortly after the attack clashes broke out between young Palestinians and Israeli security forces, said an AFP journalist at the scene.

While a spate of protests and attacks in Jerusalem has eased in recent days, tensions have focused on Hebron, where near-daily clashes pit youths against the Israeli soldiers enforcing the decades-long occupation of the West Bank.

Protests in recent days have erupted over Israel's policy of withholding the bodies of attackers, one of a series of Israeli measures to try to dissuade attacks on Jews, which began in early October as tensions over the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in annexed east Jerusalem boiled over.

Palestinians have long feared Israelis seek to change the rules governing the site that is sacred to both Muslims and Jews.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly denied seeking to allow Jews to pray at the compound, which they refer to as the Temple Mount.

Only Muslims are allowed to pray within the compound, while non-Muslims can visit but not pray there.
Source: AFP