TWO Israeli soldiers were killed in the northern occupied West Bank after a Palestinian opened fire at a security checkpoint before being shot dead.

Israeli hospitals said that another eight soldiers were injured during the attack at the Tayasir checkpoint near Jenin.

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad resistance group praised the attack but neither claimed responsibility for it. The right to use armed force to resist foreign occupation of your land is recognised in international law, with China having submitted at the International Court of Justice that Palestinian attacks on Israeli troops in Gaza and the West Bank fall into this category.