Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian youth and wounded another on Wednesday after firebombs were thrown at their vehicle in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli military spokeswoman said. A Palestinian paramedic said Fayez Atta, 17, from a village near the West Bank town of Ramallah, had died of gunshot wounds and another youth had been taken to an Israeli hospital in a serious condition.

The Israeli spokeswoman said troops opened fire when the Palestinians, whom they suspected had attacked their vehicle with firebombs, ignored their orders to surrender.

Atta was the first Palestinian youth killed by Israel for about a month in the West Bank, territory captured by Israel in a 1967 war and now also controlled by Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Most of the recent Israeli-Palestinian violence has taken place along Israel's border with the Gaza Strip, where more than 1,300 Palestinians and 14 Israelis died in a 22-day Israeli offensive launched in December against Islamist Hamas militants. (Reporting by Ali Sawafta; writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; editing by Andrew Roche)