Ramallah, Jun 22 (IANS): Three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a car in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.

Palestinian security sources and eyewitnesses said on Wednesday that an Israeli army reconnaissance drone struck near Al-Jalama, a village north of Jenin, killing all three Palestinians in the car.

The civil defence of the Palestinian Authority said in a statement that its crews arrived at the scene, doused the flames of fire, and found the bodies of the three young men, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) prevented the civil defence crew from taking the bodies, it added.

The Palestinian sources said that the IDF also prevented the ambulances of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society from taking the bodies from the burned car.

In a statement, the IDF said it killed on Wednesday night "a terror cell in the West Bank using a drone, an unusual move generally reserved for targeting major terrorists or rocket firing cells in Gaza".

The IDF believed the targeted Palestinian individuals of the terror cell were "perpetrating a shooting attack near Jalma in the Menashe region," adding that this same terror cell has recently carried out other shooting attacks.

The drone attack came amid a recent escalation of violence in the West Bank.

On Monday, six Palestinians were killed, and at least 90 others were injured during an Israeli army raid on Jenin.

On Tuesday, two Palestinian gunmen, members of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), were killed after they opened fire and killed four Israelis near the West Bank city of Ramallah.