An Israeli man has been stabbed to death outside a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, in what Israeli police say was a terrorist attack.

The victim, in his 30s or 40s, was killed at a bus stop outside Ariel.

Israeli security forces are searching for the attacker, who they identified as a Palestinian man.

It comes a day after Israel retroactively legalised an unauthorised settlement outpost in response to the killing of a resident last month.

Forces are still searching for the suspected Palestinian gunman who killed Rabbi Raziel Shevach, a father of six, as he drove near his home at Havat Gilad on 9 January.

After Monday’s attack at Ariel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that the perpetrator would be caught and brought to justice.

The Israeli military said a soldier pursued the suspect in his vehicle and hit him, but that he managed to escape.

Spate of attacks

The attack is the latest in a wave of stabbings, shootings and car-rammings against Israelis, predominantly by Palestinians or Israeli Arabs, since late 2015.

At least 52 Israelis and five foreign nationals have been killed.

Some 300 Palestinians – most of them assailants, Israel says – have also been killed in that period, according to AFP news agency. Others have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops.

Israel has previously said it intends to keep Ariel and some other large settlements blocs in any final peace agreement with the Palestinians. The Palestinians want all the settlements, built on land they claim for a future state, removed.

More than 600,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements built since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

There are also some 100 outposts – small settlements built without the government’s authorisation.

Last year, the Israeli parliament passed a law allowing for the retroactive legalisation of 55 of them, including in some circumstances those built on private Palestinian land, whose owners would be compensated.