At least seven Palestinians were killed in clashes after Israeli troops backed by the air force raided a town in the occupied West Bank, medics and local media said.

According to Reuters, the Israeli army and police said their forces, sent into Tulkarm close to the boundary with Israel to detain suspected fighters, came under fire and killed several Palestinian gunmen in the skirmish that followed.

An Israeli air strike hit a group of Palestinians who shot and threw a bomb at the group, an army and police statement said. The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said the air strike was carried out by a drone and killed three people.

There was no word of any Israeli casualties and no Palestinian group said it had lost members in the incident.