A Palestinian teenager who tried to attack an Israeli border guard in the occupied West Bank with a knife on Saturday was shot dead, an Israeli police spokeswoman said.

She said the 17-year-old attacker approached a group of border guards and pulled a knife from his bag to attack one of them, and another guard opened fire on him.

The Palestinian health ministry identified the teenager as Qoteiba Yussef Zahran from the Tulkarm region in the northern West Bank.

The Israeli spokeswoman said one of the border guards suffered a slight leg injury during the incident, but did not say clearly if he had been stabbed by the Palestinian.

Israel's public radio said the guard was the victim of "friendly fire".

A wave of unrest that broke out in October 2015 has killed more than 294 Palestinians or Arab Israelis, 47 Israelis, two Americans, two Jordanians, an Eritrean, a Sudanese and a Briton, according to an AFP toll.

Israeli authorities say most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks.

Others were shot dead in protests and clashes, while some were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

The violence had greatly subsided in recent months, but tension around the highly sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem saw a spike in July.

source: AFP