RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories, March 21, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Two Palestinians, who the Israeli military said posed a "threat" to its soldiers, were killed by an air strike in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority said early Thursday.

Israel's military said shortly after midnight that it was carrying out an operation in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nur Shams, which adjoins the town of Tulkarm in the northwest of the West Bank.

"During the operation, an aircraft struck two terrorists who posed an immediate threat to the forces," the Israeli army said in a brief message.

The Palestinian Authority's health ministry also said two people had been killed by Israeli fire in the Nur Shams camp and that their bodies had been transferred to a hospital in Tulkarm.

Three Palestinians, including an Islamic Jihad commander, were killed on Wednesday in an Israeli strike on a car in Jenin, a stronghold of Palestinian armed factions in the northern West Bank.

Several hundred people, including young men firing automatic rifles into the air, took part in the funerals of the three men in a refugee camp next to Jenin on Wednesday evening, according to AFP journalists.

Violence has intensified in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, since the start of the war in Gaza that was triggered by the unprecedented Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.

According to the Palestinian Authority, at least 430 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank since the war began and thousands more have been arrested.