A medic holds a bloodied shirt after three Palestinians were killed in Nablus, West Bank, on Tuesday. AP

Israeli troops killed three Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the Palestinian health ministry said, the latest deaths in a surge of violence in the territory since early last year.

"Three Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bullets in Nablus," the ministry said, adding the identities of those killed in the northern West Bank city were still unknown.

The Israeli army said three "armed terrorists" had opened fire on its soldiers from a vehicle in a Nablus neighbourhood and the troops fired back "to neutralise" them.

The Palestinian president's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said on Tuesday's killing of the three Palestinians amounted to a "war crime".

"Israeli crimes will not bring our people to their knees, and will not bring security and stability to anyone," he said in a statement.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967.

Agence France-Presse