A Palestinian man has confessed to the murder of a French-Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank over "nationalist motives", Israel's internal security agency said Monday.

Esther Horgen, a 52-year-old mother of six, was found dead on December 21 in a forest near the Tal Menashe settlement in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Relatives said she had gone out jogging and never returned.

On December 24, Israeli security forces arrested a Palestinian suspect, whom the Shin Bet agency identified on Monday as 40-year-old Mohammed Cabha from Tura al-Gharbiya, near Jenin.

During the investigation, "it was learned that Cabha murdered Esther Horgen for nationalist motives; he also divulged additional details about the murder", the Shin Beth said in a statement.

Cabha, who had previously served prison terms for "terrorist activity", had decided to "carry out a terrorist attack" around six weeks before the murder, following the death of an ailing Palestinian prisoner he knew in Israeli custody, the statement said.

On December 20, he was in the forest to smuggle cigarettes through a security barrier when "he identified a Jewish woman walking alone, and attacked and murdered her," the Shin Bet said.

"Four additional suspects were arrested with him for assisting him in hiding from the security forces following the attack," the statement added, noting that Cabha will stand trial at a military court.

There are currently some 450,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank, living amid an estimated 2.8 million Palestinians.

All Jewish settlements in the West Bank are regarded as illegal by much of the international community.

Tensions between Palestinians and Jewish settlers in the West Bank frequently result in violence.

jjm/sw/hkb