An alleged attacker shot in the head after stabbing an Israeli soldier near in the occupied West Bank, Israelis say.

A Palestinian man was shot on Sunday morning after allegedly stabbing an Israeli army officer in a settlement in the occupied West Bank.

“A terrorist carried out a stabbing attack in Efrat and wounded an officer,” the Israeli army’s Twitter account said.

The alleged assailant, identified by the army as Palestinian, was shot by soldiers at the scene shortly after stabbing a reserves company commander in the settlement of Efrat, between Bethlehem and Hebron, in the southern West Bank, the army said.

Both were evacuated to the Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem, which said the alleged attacker suffered a gunshot wound to his head. The soldier was stabbed in the armpit.

It was the fifth attack on Israeli security forces or civilians since Friday after a three-week lull in a nearly year-long wave of violence.

The Efrat settlement is a short distance from the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, where on Saturday a Palestinian allegedly stabbed a soldier before being shot dead.

On Friday, two Palestinians in a car allegedly tried to run over Israeli settlers at a bus stop adjacent to the Kiryat Arba settlement near Hebron before nearby soldiers shot and killed one of the assailants.

The same day, a Jordanian allegedly stabbed a police officer in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem before he was shot dead.

The Israeli army announced on Saturday that it was sending an additional battalion to reinforce the Hebron area following the increase in violence around the city.

A wave of violence since last October has killed 227 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, one Jordanian, one Eritrean and a Sudanese, according to an AFP news agency count.

Israeli forces say most of the Palestinians killed were allegedly carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. Others were shot dead during protests or killed in Israeli air raids on Gaza.