Ramallah: A Palestinian woman who inhaled tear gas fired by Israeli troops at a protest against the West Bank separation wall died overnight, Palestinian medics said on Saturday.

She was named as Jawaher Abu Rahma, 36.

The army said on Friday that it used unspecified "means of dispersing demonstrations" against some 250 violent protesters taking part in a weekly rally against the fence near the West Bank village of Bilin.

Photos showed clouds of tear gas billowing around stone-throwing protesters.

The hospital in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah did not say if she suffered from asthma or any other condition that could have aggravated the effects of the gas.

Acquaintances said that the dead woman's brother, Bassem Abu Rahma, was killed at the same site, when he was hit on the head by a tear gas canister fire at close range during a protest in April 2009.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad also attended Friday's Bilin protest but was unhurt.

Palestinians joined by Israeli and foreign activists protesting against Israel's construction of the West Bank wall have clashed with soldiers nearly every Friday outside Bilin and nearby Nilin for years.

Israel says the projected 723 kilometres of steel and concrete walls, fences and barbed wire is needed for security. The Palestinians view it as a land grab that undermines their promised state.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a non-binding resolution in 2004 calling for parts of the barrier inside the West Bank to be torn down and for further construction in the territory to cease.

Israel has ignored the ruling.

The weekly demonstrations are billed as non-violent but frequently turn into clashes between rock-throwing Palestinian youths and Israeli troops firing tear gas and rubber-coated bullets.

Israel has so far completed 413 kilometres of the planned barrier, according to UN figures.

When completed, 85 per cent of the wall will have been built inside the West Bank, taking land from villages like Bilin and Nilin.

In February, Israel began work on rerouting a part of the barrier near Bilin more than two years after a Supreme Court order, moving it hundreds of metres to the west.

The Supreme Court ruled in September 2007 that the barrier in the Bilin area was "highly prejudicial" to the villagers and demanded that the government map out an alternative route "within a reasonable period."

In its ruling, the court said the villagers had been discriminated against by having land seized and being cut off from their farmland by the barrier.

Palestinians also say that in some places the barrier cuts off access to schools and medical treatment and divides families.

The residents of Bilin were among the first to hold regular demonstrations against the wall, developing a campaign that has since spread to other West Bank villages.