Military sources said Monday that the two, residents of Hebron and aged 17-20, were targeted after they allegedly tried to stab Israeli troops near a checkpoint at the entrance of the Ibrahimi mosque in the southern city of al-Khalil, also known as Hebron.

One of the Palestinians was killed instantly by regime forces and the other died of injuries he received in the shooting.

An Israeli police spokesman said an officer was lightly wounded in the alleged stabbing attack.

The incident is the latest in an escalated wave of crackdown by Israeli forces on the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. More than 240 Palestinians have been killed either in direct confrontation with regime forces or during protests since last October.

The violence began when Palestinians became increasingly angered at reports of Israel’s covert plans for changing the status quo of the al-Aqsa Mosque, a highly revered place for the Muslims located in the occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Earlier on Monday, Israeli forces shot and injured a young Palestinian man in East Jerusalem al-Quds, claiming he had carried out a stabbing attack against them.

Israeli media said the young Palestinian was killed at Herod’s Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem al-Quds. A female officer was said to have sustained serious wounds, and a male officer was allegedly moderately injured.

A Palestinian man was shot and injured Sunday near the entrance to the illegal Efrat settlement, located 12 kilometers south of East Jerusalem al-Quds while a teenage was killed in a similar police shooting a day earlier at a security checkpoint near the neighborhood of Tel Rumeida in al-Khalil.

More than two dozen Israeli forces and settlers along with a number of foreigners have also been killed since the crackdown began in the year-long violence gripping the occupied Palestinian territories; Press TV reported.

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