Three Palestinians were killed, including two children, in an Israeli airstrike in the West Bank on Wednesday, Palestinian officials said.

Violence has escalated in the occupied territory over the last year and a half, as Israel conducts raids targeting armed fighters with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Israeli forces killed at least three Palestinian militants in stepped-up operations across the occupied West Bank on Tuesday following the killing of three Israelis near a Jewish settlement, the Israeli military said.