RAMALLAH: Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Monday during what the army called an attempted car-ramming attack on soldiers carrying out an arrest operation.

The deaths came during one of the worst periods of unrest in years in the West Bank where Israeli forces have conducted near daily raids since March.

The latest deaths were in the central West Bank, at the Jazalone refugee camp near Ramallah, where the army said it`apprehended an individual suspected of terror activity`.

`During the activity, two suspects attempted to carry out a (car) ramming attack against soldiers, an army statement said.

`The soldiersresponded with fire and neutralised the two suspects.` The Palestinian health ministry named those killed as 19-year-old Basel Basbous and Khaled Anbar, 20.

Raafat Habash, 19, was seriously injured, the ministry said.

Anbar`s mother, UmmKhaled al-Dabbas, said she beheved her son had not attempted to carry out an attack. `They were driving, they had nothing in their hands,` she said.

`They could have arrested them, why did they shoot them?` In Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority, a general strike was called in protest at the deaths. It shut down much of the city, with youths patrolling the streets demanding businesses close for the day, as car tyres were burning on the streets.-AFP