A Palestinian woman attempted to attack Israeli security guards with a knife at a checkpoint in the north of the occupied West Bank on Monday before being shot dead, officials said.

Guards fired warning shots after the woman was seen approaching a checkpoint near the city of Qalqilya with the weapon. She was shot after refusing to stop, the Israeli defence ministry said.

Two letters found in her bag indicated plans for a suicide attack, according to the ministry. Palestinian police identified her as Rasha Uweisseh, 23 and from Qalqilya.

The incident is the latest in a weeks-long wave of Palestinian protests in the occupied West Bank that has also spread to the Gaza Strip.

It came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington to meet US President Barack Obama for the first time in more than a year.

Netanyahu's meeting with Obama will centre on US defence aid to Israel following the July nuclear accord between major powers and Iran, but the violence between Israelis and Palestinians is also expected to be discussed.

Israel also responded overnight to a rocket launched from Gaza, which is controlled by militant Palestinian organisation Hamas.

On Sunday night, "a rocket was launched from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel. Sirens sounded throughout communities in the Shaar Hanegev regional council as the rocket hit an open area," an army statement said.

"In response to the attack, (Israeli air force) aircraft targeted a Hamas position in the southern Gaza Strip."

The raid saw two missiles fired at a training camp for the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed branch, Palestinian security officials said. The camp was empty at the time and no casualties were reported.

The Israeli military added that 19 rockets launched from Gaza have hit Israeli territory since the start of the year.

Much of the recent rocket fire has been claimed by Salafist jihadists in Gaza, though there was no claim of responsibility for Sunday's incident.

Israel holds Hamas responsible for all rocket fire from Gaza and nearly always responds with a similar raid.

Also on Sunday, six Israelis were wounded in three separate attacks by Palestinians in the West Bank.

The crisis started in late July when an 18-month old toddler Ali Saad Dawabsha was burned to death and three other Palestinians were severely injured after their house in the occupied West Bank was set on fire by Israeli settlers.

The settlers smashed the windows of two homes in the village of Duma near Nablus and threw Molotov cocktails inside the buildings. Dawabsha died after sustaining serious burns as a result of the attack.

The parents of the toddler, Riham and Saad, and their other son Ahmad lost their lives after suffering serious injuries as a result of the attack. 

Palestinians have been protesting repeated Israeli and illegal Jewish settler attacks on Al-Aqsa mosque—third holiest site for Muslims—and closing mosque on a number of occasions to Muslim worshippers

So far, 75 Palestinian lost their lives. Also ten Israelis and one Arab Israeli have been killed.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.