The English-language statement said that Sergeant Ronen Lubarsky, 20, of the Duvdevan special forces unit, died during the morning, two days after being struck on the head by a stone block thrown during an arrest raid.

Israeli media said that the block was a granite slab dropped from a third-floor window.

Palestinian sources said at the time the incident took place during a night-time operation to arrest suspects in Al-Amari refugee camp in the city of Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli military said that the troops were seeking Palestinian militant gunmen.

"The operational activity in which (Lubarsky) participated was intended to apprehend a squad of operatives who were involved in shooting attacks," it said.

It added that he was promoted posthumously to the rank of Staff Sergeant.

His attacker has not been identified.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his "deep sorrow" at the soldier's death.

"The security forces will reach the terrorist and the state of Israel will bring him to reckoning," a statement from his office quoted him as saying in Hebrew.

Israeli forces regularly carry out night raids in Palestinian-governed parts of the West Bank to arrest Palestinians suspected of militant activities against Israel.

Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Duvdevan was at the forefront of such raids.

"Duvdevan, one of our elite units, conducts many arrests every night in an endless war that has no publicity and no glory," he wrote on his official Twitter account.

"We shall bring Ronen justice," he added.

Amari camp, home to 15,000 Palestinians, is a regular flashpoint where Israeli raids have sparked fierce clashes in the past.

One such operation, in 2016, brought hundreds of stone-throwing Palestinian youths onto the streets.

Troops responded by firing live ammunition and rubber bullets, wounding 28 people.

Palestinian security sources said then that the army had tried to arrest an official from Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party, who managed to escape.