KIRYAT ARBA, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – A Palestinian attacker yesterday fatally stabbed a 13-year-old girl in her home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank before being shot dead by security guards, the Israeli army said.

The US State Department later announced that the girl is a US citizen. “We have now confirmed that she is a US citizen,” department spokesman John Kirby said of the girl, identified as Hallel Yaffa Ariel.

“This brutal act of terrorism is simply unconscionable. We offer our heartfelt condolences of course to her family and to her friends,” Kirby told reporters.

The State Department spokesman – who called the attack “outrageous” – did not say whether the teen also held Israeli citizenship.

The Israeli army said the young Palestinian killed the girl in her bed after breaking into her home in the Kiryat Arba settlement outside the flashpoint city of Hebron.

Security personnel rushed to the house and fired on the attacker, who wounded a guard before being shot dead, the army said.

The girl was taken to hospital in Jerusalem in critical condition and died of her wounds.

The Palestinian health ministry identified the attacker as Mohammed Nasser Tarayra, 19, from the village of Bani Naim, just outside the city, in the south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The victim’s family said Hallel Yaffa Ariel was attacked in her sleep, and the military released a photograph of her blood-spattered bedroom.

As mourners visited the family home, the girl’s father told AFP she had been sleeping late after a dance performance the night before and that he had been on his way to the house to wake her for work when he heard of the attack.

She worked in his winery during the summer vacation which just started.

“At the first moment I thought everything was well, but I knew deep in my heart she was not alive,” said Amichai Ariel, 59. “I shouted at her.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman after the attack, and the home village of the assailant was sealed off.

Israeli work permits for members of Tarayra’s extended family were also to be revoked and authorities began procedures aimed at demolishing his home, a measure often taken against attackers.

“I expect the Palestinian leadership to clearly and unequivocally condemn this vicious murder and take immediate action to stop the incitement,” the premier said in a statement.

“The entire world needs to condemn this murder just as it condemned the terrorist attacks in Orlando (Florida) and Brussels.”

Hours later in the town of Netanya, on the Mediterranean coast north of Tel Aviv, a Palestinian from the northern West Bank stabbed a man and woman, both Israelis, before being shot dead by a passing civilian, police said.