Attack on Israelis: 2 more Palestinians killed

Five Palestinians, three of them teenagers, have been shot dead after trying to attack Israeli security forces, Israeli officials say.

Another Palestinian, a teenage girl, was critically wounded in another attempted assault, police said.

No Israelis were hurt in any of the incidents.

They were the latest in a wave of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks by Palestinians or Israeli Arabs.

More than 160 Palestinians - most of them attackers, Israel says - and 26 Israelis have been killed since October 2015. Palestinians have also been killed in clashes with Israeli forces and during demonstrations.

In the first incident on Sunday, the Israeli army says that two boys were throwing rocks at passing cars near Jenin in the northern West Bank.

When a patrol arrived at the scene, the army says one of them opened fire with a rifle.

The soldiers fired back and killed the two Palestinians. Both are said to have been 15 years old.

Later at a checkpoint, Israeli police say a Palestinian youth with a knife ran at officers as they checked cars entering Jerusalem. One officer opened fire and killed him.

The youth is said to have been 17 and from a village near Bethlehem.

In the third deadly incident, two Palestinians were killed after they opened fire on Israeli police with automatic weapons outside Jerusalem's Old City, an Israeli police spokesman said.

In another incident, a 17-year-old woman who tried to stab a policeman in Hebron was shot and taken to hospital in a critical condition, police said.

There were conflicting reports in Palestinian media, with the Maan news agency reporting that the shot girl had crossed a military checkpoint with her sister and was walking away when she was shot.

Maan quoted local Palestinian sources as saying neither girl had attempted an attack. The agency gave the dead girl's age as 14 and said she had been fired on six times.

On Saturday an 18-year-old Palestinian woman was shot dead in Hebron after trying to stab an Israeli solder, Israeli officials said.

Correspondents say the wave of violence shows no sign of abating, and, although the attacks are sporadic, they are persistent.