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JERUSALEM (AFP / Reuters) - The Palestinian police shot and wounded three Israelis in an attack on their vehicle in the occupied West Bank on Monday, police said.

"This is a terrorist attack. The attack was launched against the security forces and police vehicles surrounded the scene now," said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

No Palestinian group has claimed responsibility for the attack near the town of Al Khalil (Hebron), the southern West Bank.

An ambulance service spokesman said two of the three policemen were seriously injured. All the victims were taken to hospital, the spokesman said.

The number of attacks and casualties in the West Bank declined sharply in recent years, but last month the armed Jewish settlers shot dead a Palestinian teenager near the town of Ramallah after he threw stones at their vehicle.

About 500,000 Jewish settlers and 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and the area near Jerusalem which Israel annexed after the Arab-Israeli war of 1967.