A Palestinian attacker has stabbed a 13-year-old Israeli girl to death in her bed after breaking into her home in a West Bank settlement.

The 17-year-old attacker was fatally shot by security guards in Kiryat Arba and the Israeli military sealed off entrances to a nearby village which was his home.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on both the Palestinian leadership and the international community to condemn the brutal assault.

"The horrifying murder of a young girl in her bed underscores the bloodlust and inhumanity of the incitement-driven terrorists that we are facing," Mr Netanyahu said after an emergency meeting with his defence minister.

"The entire nation deeply identifies with the family's pain and declares to the murderers: you will not break us."

Hospital officials identified the girl as Hallel Yaffa Ariel. She was a cousin of Uri Ariel, a cabinet minister from the Jewish Home, a party affiliated with the West Bank settler movement. The minister later said Israel would make "every effort" to build up settlements in the West Bank.

Photographs circulated by the Israeli government showed a pool of blood in a colourful children's bedroom in Kiryat Arba, a hard-line Jewish settlement located near the Palestinian city of Hebron, a focal point of the current wave of violence.

In Washington, the US State Department condemned "in the strongest terms the outrageous terrorist attack", calling the stabbing "unconscionable".

Since September, Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbing, shooting and vehicle ramming attacks that have killed 33 Israelis and two American tourists. About 200 Palestinians have been killed during that time, most identified as attackers by Israel.

The assaults were once near-daily occurrences, but have become less frequent in recent months though they have not stopped altogether. On June 8, a pair of Palestinian gunmen killed four Israeli civilians in a popular Tel Aviv tourist district.

Israeli officials say the violence is the result of anti-Israeli incitement by Palestinian leaders and in Palestinian social media. Palestinian officials say the violence is the result of despair and hopelessness after two decades of failed peace efforts, and the lack of hope for gaining independence after nearly 50 years of Israeli occupation.

Israeli security forces have had a difficult time stopping the attackers, in large part because they have tended to be young "lone wolf" assailants, often in their teens or early 20s, acting on their own and not sent by organised militant groups.

Thursday's attacker seemed to fit that profile. The Palestinian Health Ministry identified him as Mohammed Tarayreh, 17, from the Bani Naim village near Kiryat Arba.

Adnan Tarayreh, a cousin, said Tarayreh had dropped out of school and was working in a bakery. He said the family was surprised by his attack and speculated that the teen may have been spurred to action after the death of a cousin who was killed while attempting to ram Israelis in Kiryat Arba.

The military said it had closed the entrances of Bani Naim to all but humanitarian and medical cases. Troops arrived at Tarayreh's family home for investigation, the army said.

Mr Netanyahu said Israel is revoking Israeli work permits for members of Tarayreh's extended family, and preparations are being made to demolish the family's home - a much criticised Israeli tactic.

Residents of Kiryat Arba said Tarayreh had climbed over a fence surrounding the settlement and entered the community undetected.

The military said private Israeli security guards at the settlement had fired at Tarayreh as he tried to flee the attack scene. One guard was stabbed before the assailant was killed and is in a serious condition.

Speaking to reporters at the Jerusalem hospital where her daughter died, Hallel's mother Rina said the girl was sleeping when the attacker slipped into her room and attacked her. She defiantly said the community would remain strong.

"Kiryat Arba is ours and it's still a place you can live in," she said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has not commented on the attack.

AP