Armed Palestinians shot and lightly wounded two Israelis driving in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the Israeli army said.

A military spokesman and the Zaka rescue service said the shooting occurred after dark near the Jewish settlement of Maaleh Levonah, situated between the cities of Ramallah and Nablus, and that troops were searching for suspects.

"Two Israeli civilians were lightly wounded when terrorists opened fire at a vehicle" in the West Bank, the military spokesman said. He said both were taken to hospital.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility or comments from Palestinian groups on the attack, the first on an Israeli in the West Bank for several weeks.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war, and it is one of the territories the Palestinians want for a state. There is often violence in the West Bank between Jewish settlers and Palestinians who live there.