A Palestinian man stabbed and shot dead an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday (April 30), the Israeli ambulance service and police said, the first such incident since 2011.

The attacker then began shooting at security services who arrived on the scene, Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said. He said the man was in custody.

Israeli media said that the attacker was standing at a bus stop used by settlers, Israeli soldiers and Palestinians at a junction near the Palestinian city of Nablus, he then pulled out a knife and began stabbing the settler and border police shot and wounded him.

The Israeli internal security service, Shin Beit, has said that during 2012 no Israelis were killed in the West Bank. In March 2011 two settlers and three of their young children were stabbed to death in their home.

In a further sign of increasing violence, nine Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in West Bank since the beginning of the year.

The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in a 1967 war. Peace talks between the sides in 2010. The United States has stepped up efforts in recent weeks to revive them.

Presented by Adam Justice