Paramedics said two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on northern Gaza on Thursday, and Palestinian authorities and the Israeli army said three others were shot dead in the occupied West Bank.

An Israeli civilian killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Thursday after they were suspected of stabbing another Israeli who was trying to put out a forest fire near a settlement, the army said.

Violence has escalated in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, since the outbreak of the Gaza war.

"Earlier today, a fire broke out in the area adjacent to the Itamar community. While trying to extinguish the fire, two terrorists stabbed an Israeli civilian," the army said.

It added, according to AFP, that another Israeli "eliminated" the two Palestinians without specifying how they were killed.

The Israeli police said in a separate statement that the stabbing took place while Israelis "were trying to extinguish a fire that appears to have been set there."

A medic from the Magen David Adom rescue service said the wounded Israeli was stabbed in the chest and taken to hospital in serious condition.

Yossi Dagan, head of the administrative body representing Israeli settlements in the northern West Bank, visited the scene and called on the Israeli government to respond with an "iron fist" to the stabbing.

He asserted that the Palestinians came from the village of Beit Furik, accusing its residents of setting the fire. The army said Israeli police and the fire service are conducting investigations to determine the circumstances of the fire.

The Israeli army added that its forces opened fire on a third Palestinian in the West Bank after a separate stabbing attack that wounded an Israeli soldier. In a separate statement, it said it targeted gunmen in Gaza. More than 500,000 settlers currently live in settlements in the West Bank alongside about 3 million Palestinians. All Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.

Official Israeli data shows that at least 46 Israelis, including civilians and security personnel, have been killed in attacks carried out by Palestinians or during Israeli military operations since the outbreak of the Gaza war.

According to a toll compiled by AFP based on data from the Palestinian Health Ministry, Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 1,090 Palestinians, including civilians, during the same period.