RAMALLAH: Undercover Israeli policemen who had infiltrated a group of Palestinian stone throwers shot and wounded three of them, one seriously, in the West Bank Wednesday.

The incident occurred during clashes with Israeli security forces at the Bet El checkpoint near Ramallah witnessed by AFP.

Four masked men, one carrying a flag of Hamas, were throwing rocks when others among them suddenly drew pistols. As the infiltrators grabbed and beat one man, they opened fire as stones flew at them.

One of the Palestinians was hit in the back of the head.

Israeli soldiers who were only meters away rushed in to assist the shooters.

The wounded, two of whom were roughed up by their assailants and the soldiers, were taken away in ambulances.

Meanwhile, illegal Jewish settlers shot and seriously wounded a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank early on Wednesday, the Red Crescent and witnesses said.

The 18-year-old was in intensive care but in a stable condition after the shooting east of Bethlehem, a medic told AFP.

Separately, an 18-year-old Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli in Jerusalem on Wednesday and was then shot and wounded by the injured man, Israeli police said, the third knife attack in the city in less than a week.

Police said the attacker struck in an alleyway near the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex.

In another case, Israeli police said a suspect stabbed a soldier and tried to take his weapon in southern Israel before being shot dead by police.

Police said the man attacked the soldier after getting off a bus in the city of Kiryat Gat. The man then fled into a residential building, where police forces tracked him down and shot him dead.