A Palestinian man was killed on Wednesday in the occupied West Bank, an AFP correspondent said, after what Israeli police described as a gun attack against Israelis at the entrance to a settlement.

The man "fired at the entrance of Maale Adumim (settlement) towards security guards... wounding one of them in the hand before being neutralised by the other guards," the Israeli police said in a statement, while an AFP photographer saw the body of the alleged assailant.

The Magen David Adom, Israel's equivalent of the Red Cross, confirmed it treated "a man in his twenties with an injured hand" who was then taken to a Jerusalem hospital.

Maale Adumim is one of the biggest Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Violence has surged in recent months in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, amid near daily West Bank raids by Israeli occupation army and an uptick in attacks on troops.

The expansion of military operations in Jenin and elsewhere in the West Bank followed deadly attacks on Israelis earlier this year.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War.

Around 475,000 Israelis now live in settlements across the territory, which are considered illegal by international law.

They live alongside some 2.8 million Palestinians, who in different areas of the West Bank are subject to Israeli military rule or live under limited Palestinian governance.