The body of an Israeli soldier was found with multiple stab wounds near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the army said.

"Today in the early morning hours, a soldier's body was found with stabbing marks on it adjacent to a (Jewish) community north of Hebron," an English-language army statement said.

It did not elaborate on the circumstances but said that troops, police and members of the Shin Bet intelligence agency were searching the area.

The newly drafted 18-year-old soldier was a student at a Yeshiva -- or Jewish seminary -- in the settlement of Migdal Oz, near where the body was found. 

He was in a programme that combined military service with religious study, the seminary head told Israeli public radio.

"The soldier left for Jerusalem during the afternoon to buy a gift for his teachers," rabbi Shlomo Wilk said. 

"He was in contact half an hour before he was murdered. He was on the bus to the yeshiva" Wilk said. 

"About 100 metres (yards) from the bus stop, before he entered the settlement, he was murdered."