Israeli forces kill two Palestinians after 'car ramming' attempt

Israeli forces killed two Palestinians after a car-ramming incident in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Amir Mahmoud Darraj and Yussef Anqawi, both 20 were both killed by Israeli forces on Monday after what Israeli police say was a car-ramming attempt.

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, a military statement said.

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

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

Local witnesses, however, say the Israeli officers were injured in a car accident rather a deliberate attack.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. More than 600,000 Israeli Jews live in settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

All Israeli settlements across the occupied West Bank are classed as illegal under international law, particularly article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which asserts that "the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies".

Israeli forces and settlers routinely attack Palestinians in the occupied territories, demolishing their homes, poisoning their livestock and vandalising their properties.

Agencies contributed to this report.