Protests erupted in the occupied West Bank on Monday after the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that two Palestinian males aged 15 and 19 were shot and killed in the town of Beit Ummar.
A further two youths were injured in the shooting on Sunday evening in the town lying to the north of Hebron, the report said.
The Israeli military reported that the troops had responded to Palestinians throwing Molotov cocktails at an Israeli settlement and setting tyres alight. Two had been "eliminated" and a further two "incapacitated," it said.
A strike was called in Beit Ummar on Monday in protest at the deaths.
Violence in the West Bank has increased since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, with the Israeli military mounting major operations against militant Palestinians.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have died in the violence in two and a half years, according to the Palestinian health authority in Ramallah.
Israeli settlers have also increasingly used violence to target the Palestinian population.
Israel seized the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War. The region is now home to 3 million Palestinians and around 700,000 Israeli settlers. The region is claimed by the Palestinian Authority for its own state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
