Suspected Palestinian gunmen kill Israeli woman in West Bank

NEAR HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) -An Israeli woman was killed in a suspected Palestinian shooting attack near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on Monday, the Israeli military said.

Israel's ambulance service said an Israeli man who was also seriously wounded in the incident was transferred to hospital and that a 6-year-old who was in the car was "miraculously unharmed".

The military said in a statement it had set up roadblocks and was searching for the suspects, who it said fired from a passing vehicle.

A spokesperson for the Islamist Hamas group that governs blockaded Gaza, Hazem Qassem, praised the attack and said it was a response to Israel's ongoing assaults on Palestinians.

Violence in the West Bank has surged over the past 15 months with stepped up military raids, Israeli settler rampages, and Palestinian street attacks.

Israeli forces were already hunting for a Palestinian suspected of shooting and killing two Israelis on Saturday.

"We are facing murderous terrorism that must not be tolerated," said cabinet minister Bezalel Smotrich, adding that he would make sure the "right decisions are made in the appropriate forums."

Hours after the shooting, Palestinians reported that Israeli troops entered a village near the city of Nablus, sparking clashes with stone-throwing Palestinians. Eight people were wounded by Israeli fire, one seriously, medical officials said. Israel's army said it was checking the report.

In Gaza, a crowd of Palestinians gathered near the border fence with Israel marking the anniversary of a 1969 arson attack on Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque.

The Israeli army said "hundreds of rioters" were near the fence, some hurling explosive devices and rocks. It said soldiers responded with sniper fire and riot dispersal means. The Palestinians reported two people wounded by Israeli fire.

U.S.-brokered peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, collapsed in 2014 and show no sign of revival.

Israel captured those territories in the 1967 Middle East war. Its growing settlements in the West Bank, where Palestinian have limited self-rule, are considered by most countries as illegal, a view that Israel disputes.

(Reporting by Yosri al-Jamal, Maayan Lubell, Nidal al-Mughrabi, Ali Sawfta, Ari Rabinovitch and Henriette Chacar; Editing by Toby Chopra, Angus MacSwan and Bill Berkrot)