Woman shot after calmly pulling a knife out of her handbag and stabbing security guard

Chilling video footage shows the moment a Palestinian woman stabbed a security guard near a West Bank settlement before being shot by the victim.

The incident occurred at the entrance to the Beitar Illit settlement south of Jerusalem and followed an alleged car-ramming attack in the West Bank earlier in the day that wounded three Israelis, with the assailant shot dead by police.

Hilwa Salim Darwish, 22, was asked by the security guard for identification after trying to enter the predominately Jewish city just south of Jerusalem.

A Palestinian woman spoke calmly with a security guard before the attack. Photo: Beitar Illit Municipality

While 33-year-old guard Yishai Kreitenberger looked through her documentation, she reached inside her bag.

"I was standing at the city's guard post when I noticed the terrorist walking towards me…she was tense, looking around [as though] she was unfamiliar with the place," he said.

"As she approached, she presented her green Palestinian ID card.

"So I told her she could not enter. While I was talking, I saw her putting her hand in her purse. [When] I asked her why she was [doing that], she took out a knife and managed to scratch me with it."

Moments later she is seen to be searching for an object inside her bag. Photo: Beitar Illit Municipality

She was shot in the street where a number of Palestinians from the village nearby reportedly began to protest soon after.

A spokeswoman at Hadassah University Medical Centre in Jerusalem's Ein Karem described the woman's condition as serious and said she was being treated in intensive care. The guard was lightly wounded.

The woman lunged at the security guard and inflicted minor injuries on him before she was shot. Photo: Beitar Illit Municipality

Car-ramming and stabbing attacks wounded six Israelis in the West Bank on Sunday while two alleged Palestinian assailants were shot, authorities said, the latest in a weeks-long wave of violence.

While violence had waned somewhat in recent days, the new attacks signalled that knife, gun and car assaults that began at the start of October were set to continue despite tough Israeli security measures.

The latest unrest came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left for Washington on Sunday to meet US President Barack Obama.

In the first incident, a Palestinian rammed a group of Israelis with a car at a junction, wounding four of them, and was then killed by security forces, police said.

The alleged attacker was said to have driven the car into an area south of Nablus where Israelis typically gather to hitch rides. A checkpoint is located nearby and Israeli border police opened fire.

Israeli public radio described two of the injured as in a serious condition.

Another incident saw an Israeli settler stabbed while shopping in the West Bank village of Nabi Elias, with two alleged Palestinian assailants fleeing afterwards, the Israeli defence ministry said.

The victim, aged around 50, was stabbed in the stomach but managed to drive to a nearby checkpoint and was taken for medical treatment, authorities said. He lives in the Immanuel settlement in the West Bank.

Police said on Sunday night that a border policeman gravely injured in a Palestinian ramming attack near the West Bank city of Hebron on November 4 died in hospital.

In the second incident Sunday a Palestinian woman stabbed a security guard near the West Bank settlement of Beitar Illit (pictured in 2014) and was shot by the victim, the Israeli police and army said (AFP Photo/Musa al-Shaer)

- 'Stabilising the situation' -

Attacks since the start of October have left 73 Palestinians dead, around half of them alleged attackers. Ten Israelis and one Arab Israeli have also been killed.

Violent protests have also erupted in annexed east Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Unrest had appeared to be declining over the past few days, but several attacks on Friday as well as clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians shattered the lull.

Israeli security forces secure the area where a Palestinian woman was shot after she allegedly attempted to ram Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Hebron, on November 6, 2015 (AFP Photo/Ahmad Gharabli)

Much of the violence has been in the West Bank city of Hebron, where two Israelis were shot and wounded on Friday at a flashpoint holy site.

On Sunday, there was also violence across southern Israel's border with Gaza, controlled by the militant Islamic group Hamas.

A rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave slammed into open ground in Israel, but caused no apparent casualties, the Israeli army said in a statement.

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.

A Palestinian protester takes cover during clashes with Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Hebron October 31, 2015. Israeli security forces shot and killed a Palestinian who ran at them with a knife in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, police said, as a month-long wave of violence showed no signs of abating. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

At a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said he will discuss with Obama "possible progress with the Palestinians, or at least stabilising the situation with them, and, of course, strengthening the security of the state of Israel".

Haaretz newspaper reported on Sunday that during his meeting with Obama Netanyahu planned to unveil measures to calm tensions in the West Bank, and that these may include removing some checkpoints and easing certain restrictions on movement.

US officials say, however, that Obama has lost any hope of a final peace accord being reached between Israelis and Palestinians before he leaves office in January 2017, and sees meaningful negotiations as unlikely before then.

Many of the attacks have been carried out by young Palestinians fed up with Israel's occupation and who appear to be acting on their own. They have defied calls for peaceful resistance from Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

Morning news break – November 9