TULKARM, West Bank (Reuters) -Israeli troops killed two Palestinian gunmen during clashes in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, in which five soldiers were also wounded, sources on both sides said.
The two Palestinians were in a car from which shots were fired at an Israeli vehicle near the town of Tulkarm, the military said. Following a pursuit, soldiers shot both of the Palestinians in a gunfight and recovered an assault rifle from their car, it said.
The Hamas Islamist militant group claimed the slain Palestinians, aged 23 and 27, as its members.
Hamas and another armed faction, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said they had inflicted Israeli casualties in gun and bomb ambushes in a separate clash within Tulkarm.
The army said five Israeli soldiers were wounded in that incident, as they detained a Palestinian militant. Islamic Jihad said one of its members was in Israeli custody.
The West Bank, among territories where Palestinians seek statehood, has seen a surge of violence in recent months amid an almost decade-old impasse in U.S.-sponsored peacemaking efforts.
(Reporting by Ali Sawafta and Nidal al-MughrabiEditing by Bernadette Baum)
