Israeli soldiers shoot students protesting killing of Palestinians

Dozens of students in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah clashed with Israeli forces as they protested the killing of three Palestinians.

Students from Birzeit University protested north of Ramallah near an Israeli checkpoint against the army killing of three young Palestinians near Ramallah and in Nablus the night before.

Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets at the students, injuring three while suffocating others.

Israeli soldiers around hills near the checkpoint had also fired sound bombs towards journalists covering the event, forcing them to evacuate the area.

The protest came after Israeli soldiers killed Omar Abu Laila, 19, in the Ramallah area village of Obwin after they claimed he was behind the killing of an Israeli soldier.

Raid Hamdan, 21, and Zaid Nouri, 20, died after being shot late on Tuesday by Israeli troops near the Joseph Tomb's near the Palestinian city of Nablus.

The Israeli army claimed that explosives were hurled from a vehicle as Jewish worshippers visited the site late on Tuesday.

"Troops responded with live fire towards the vehicle," he said, although there were no reports of injuries.

The site has long been a source of tension between Israelis and Palestinians.

Jews believe the site contains the remains of the biblical patriarch Joseph, one of the 12 sons of Jacob.

Palestinian Muslims believe an Islamic cleric, Sheikh Yusser (Joseph) Dweikat, was buried there two centuries ago.

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