Israeli forces have shot and killed two Palestinians who carried out a car-ramming attack in the occupied West Bank on Monday, injuring a soldier and a policeman, police and the army said.
A senior Palestinian official claimed the initial incident was likely an accident however, with the car colliding into an Israeli military vehicle as it rounded a bend.
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.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised soldiers for having swiftly "eliminated" the attackers and vowed to fast-track the demolitions of their homes.
"I have ordered that the demolitions of these homes be speeded up," he said.
"We are determined to continue our vigorous struggle against the murderers and against terrorism everywhere."
Israel regularly razes the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks against Israelis.
Rights groups criticise the practice as collective punishment since family members suffer from the actions of relatives.
Israeli rights group B'Tselem also says "it is carried out without trial and without any requirement to present evidence."
A Palestinian seen using a slingshot to throw a gas canister back to Israeli soldiers during a clash last year. Source: Press Association
The Palestinian health ministry named the two men killed as Amir Mahmoud Darraj and Yussef Anqawi, both 20.
Kafr Nama's mayor said that troops were leaving the village on foot after a raid to arrest a Palestinian suspect there when the incident occurred.
Mahmoud Habbash, the Palestinian supreme judge and advisor to president Mahmud Abbas, later questioned the Israeli version of events.
"It is inconceivable that three young men carry out an operation to run over the occupation soldiers in a car. One driver would be enough," he said in a statement carried by official news agency Wafa.
The evidence, he added, suggested it was "a normal traffic accident between the Palestinian car and an occupation vehicle," calling the subsequent shooting a "deliberate killing."
Firebombs
Israel's army said its troops had arrested 11 alleged Hamas operatives in the Ramallah area overnight.
It added that "an initial inquiry suggests that earlier in the evening, the assailants of the car-ramming attack also hurled firebombs at a crossing".
"Additional firebombs were later found in the vehicle that had been used in the terror attack," the army statement said.
Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip and has fought three wars with Israel, praised the car-ramming but stopped short of claiming responsibility.
A statement hailing the attack said the Palestinian people "will continue their struggle against the occupier until they achieve complete freedom and free their land".
Palestinian car-ramming, knife and gun attacks against Israelis occur sporadically in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War.
