Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian during a clash in the West Bank on Thursday, the third Palestinian killed in the occupied territory in 24 hours, the Health Ministry said.

The violence erupted in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, a ministry statement said, identifying the dead man as Ayman Muhaisen, 29.

Muhaisen was the third Palestinian killed in 24 hours after a woman allegedly approaching soldiers with a knife was shot early Wednesday, and a man was killed during an Israeli army operation in the village of Yabad, near the city of Jenin later that day.

Tensions have soared following the killing in the West Bank of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who worked for Al-Jazeera, and an Israeli march through a Palestinian thoroughfare in East Jerusalem.

Recent weeks have seen at least 35 Palestinians killed by Israel.

Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank complain of frequent attacks by Jewish settlers, often including acts of physical violence, vandalism and the destruction of Palestinian farmland.

Tension has been running high across the Palestinian territories in the wake of a controversial march by Israeli settlers through East Jerusalem and daily settler incursions into the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move never recognized by the international community.