A Palestinian man was paralysed from the neck down after being shot by the Israeli army during Friday clashes in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The man was shot through the neck, the ministry said in a statement.

Palestinian sources had earlier reported the wounding of 24-year-old Haroun Rasmi Abu Aram in the village of Al-Tuwanah, south of Hebron.

The man had been attempting to prevent the troops from "stealing an electric generator" that belonged to him, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Israeli rights group B'Tselem said Abu Aram was helping a neighbour to build a house at the time of the shooting.

The Israeli occupation army told AFP that a number of Palestinians had attacked its troops who were conducting a routine operation to evacuate an "illegal building" and had fired into the air in response.

An investigation into the incident was under way, the Israeli occupation army added.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and its settlements in the area are regarded as illegal by much of the international community.

But the settler population has grown in recent years.

There are currently some 450,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank, living among an estimated 2.8 million Palestinians.

Tensions between the two communities have repeatedly led to violence.