The Israeli army shot and wounded a Palestinian woman on Monday after she stabbed an Israeli civilian near a Jewish settlement bloc in the southern West Bank, the military said.

The civilian suffered minor injuries in the stabbing at a major crossroads near the Gush Etzion bloc, south of Bethlehem, the army said in a statement.

"Security forces on site overpowered the suspect and transferred her for further medical assistance," the statement said.

Police said in an initial statement that the woman was shot after stabbing a soldier.

The incident came as tensions run high in Israel and the Palestinian territories, after a series of deadly attacks in Jerusalem in November, and the fatal stabbing of an Israeli soldier in Tel Aviv.

Israeli security forces killed the perpetrators of most of those attacks at the scene.