Israeli forces kill two Palestinian 'assailants' in Wbank

A Palestinian demonstrator hurls back a tear gas canister towards Israeli forces. (Photo by AFP)

Israeli forces on Monday shot and killed two Palestinians after they ran over troops in the occupied West Bank, injuring a soldier and a border policeman, police and the army said.

The army said security forces opened fire at three Palestinian assailants "neutralising two of them and lightly injuring a third" while police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said two of the Palestinians were killed.

"Assailants ran over a number of soldiers who had stopped at the side of the road on their way out of the village," of Kafr Nama, northwest of Ramallah, an English-language military statement said.

"An (army) officer was severely injured and a Border Police soldier was lightly injured as a result," the army said.

"An initial inquiry indicates that the incident was a terror attack," it added.

Rosenfeld said that the policeman injured in the pre-dawn attack had already been released from hospital.

Kafr Nama's mayor said that troops were leaving the village on foot after an operation to arrest a Palestinian suspect there when the incident occurred.

He did not know the identities of the Palestinians allegedly involved and said they may have come from outside the village.