TWO Palestinian men were killed by Israeli troops in an army raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus today, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

The killing is the latest in a year-long spike of Israeli violence against Palestinians that shows no sign of abating.

The Israeli military said that troops arrested two people suspected of assisting a gunman who shot and wounded two soldiers in the occupied West Bank town of Hawara last month. 

The army said its soldiers came under fire during the raid and shot back, confirming what it referred to as “hits.”

Violence has surged in recent months in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as Israeli forces carry out near-daily arrest raids in Palestinian-controlled areas.

The United States has been involved in trying to broker talks between Israel, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority to try to defuse tensions during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, now in its second week.

But these talks have failed to bring about a halt to the violence.

At least 88 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli or settler gunfire this year, according to an Associated Press tally. 

Palestinian attacks against Israelis have killed 15 people in the same period.

The Palestinians killed have included stone-throwing youths protesting at the Israeli incursions, as well as people not involved in confrontations.

The Israeli military also said today that fighter jets intercepted an “unidentified aircraft over the Gaza Strip” that didn’t enter Israel’s airspace.

The Palestinian group Hamas said the intercepted aircraft was one of its unmanned attack drones conducting an exercise.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 war and maintained an illegal occupation of them ever since. The Palestinians seek those territories for a future independent state.