Palestinian Car Attack Injures 2 in W. Bank as Israeli Fire Kills 1, Wounds 5 in Gaza

Three Israelis were wounded and two Palestinians were killed Tuesday in a stabbing and a car attack in the occupied West Bank, as a Palestinian was killed and five others were wounded by Israeli fire along the Gaza Strip border.

Tuesday's first attack saw an Israeli soldier stabbed during clashes near the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron and the alleged 23-year-old Palestinian assailant shot dead.

The stabbing occurred around Beit Awwa in the southern West Bank.

Clashes had also erupted in Hebron earlier in the day as Israeli troops destroyed the home of a Palestinian jailed for a deadly knife attack last year.

The demolition of the home of Maher al-Hashlamoun in the flashpoint city of Hebron was accompanied by clashes between dozens of Palestinian stone throwers and Israeli soldiers but there were no casualties, witnesses said.

Hashlamoun, a member of radical group Islamic Jihad, was given two life sentences by a military court in March for the November 10, 2014 murder of Dalia Lemkus, 26, and the attempted murder of two other people on a road in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, south of Jerusalem.

Last week, the Israeli government ordered an intensification of punitive home demolitions in response to a wave of stabbing and shooting attacks and other deadly unrest.

It says the controversial policy acts as a deterrent but critics say the main victims of such demolitions are relatives forced to pay for another person's actions.

The home destroyed on Tuesday was an apartment inside a larger building. Witnesses said soldiers used jackhammers and other equipment to destroy the apartment, rather than explosives or bulldozers, as has been used in the past.

On October 6, Israel demolished the homes of two Palestinians behind attacks last year and sealed off a room in another.

Another attack Tuesday saw an Israeli soldier and a civilian injured after a Palestinian attempted to ram his car into a group of pedestrians in the West Bank, then exited with a knife and was shot dead, officials said.

The incident occurred at an intersection on a highway south of Jerusalem near the Jewish settlement of Gush Etzion in the occupied West Bank.

More than 40 Palestinians have been killed in the upsurge in violence that began at the start of the month, including alleged attackers.

Eight Israelis have died in attacks.