"An American solidarity activist arrived at the hospital with a gunshot in the head, and we announced her martyrdom around 14:30," said Fouad Nafaa, director of Rafidia hospital in Nablus.

Witnesses and Palestinian media reported that the woman was shot by Israeli troops while attending a demonstration against  settlement expansion in the Palestinian town of Beita, north of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the slain activist had been involved in a campaign known as "Fazaa" to protect farmers from Israeli settler violence, which has surged in the West Bank alongside the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

The activist was a woman in her mid-20s, Nafaa told AFP.

Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 661 Palestinians in the West Bank since the war on Gaza began in October, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Last month, a US citizen told AFP he was shot by Israeli forces and wounded in the leg during a protest against settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, as the Israeli military confirmed it fired live rounds to disperse the gathering.