Israeli officer injured after car rams into Israeli soldiers

Israel says a Palestinian vehicle targeted Israeli soldiers on a highway in the West Bank, prompting troops to open fire, killing two Palestinians inside.

Israeli media said two of the Palestinians were killed. In a statement describing the incident as a Palestinian car-ramming attack, the military said two assailants were “neutralized” and a third was slightly wounded.

The military says an officer and a border policeman were injured when the Palestinian car rammed into a group of Israeli troops, running them over on a road outside a village near the city of Ramallah. The officer was seriously injured and hospitalized.

The troops had stopped their vehicle at the roadside at night - Israeli media reported it had broken down - and were deliberately struck, the military said.

The military says a third Palestinian inside the car was wounded and taken into custody.

Since 2015, Palestinians have killed over 50 Israelis in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks and Israeli forces have killed over 260 Palestinians in that same period.

Israel has described most of the Palestinians killed as attackers, but occasional clashes have also turned deadly.

Israel captured the West Bank in a 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians seek to establish a state there and in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014.