Jerusalem, Oct 6 (IANS): The Israeli military said soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian gunman in the occupied West Bank, following the gunman's attack on an Israeli settlers' car, marking the third Palestinian killed in a single day.

The military said on Thursday that the suspect opened fire at an Israeli car outside the Einabus Junction near the Palestinian town of Huwara and then fled the scene. Bullet marks were discovered on the vehicle, but there were no reported injuries, Xinhua news agency reported.

The troops set up roadblocks in the area. After a pursuit, they located the suspect hiding in a nearby building and shot him dead amid a gunbattle, according to the military.

Earlier, Israeli soldiers shot dead two Palestinians, aged 23 and 27, who fired shots at an Israeli motorcyclist outside the village of Shufa near the city of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank, according to Israeli and Palestinian sources.

Violence between the Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank, a territory captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war, has surged in the past year-and-a-half, mainly fueled by frequent Israeli raids on Palestinian cities, towns and villages.