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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Palestinian driver rammed his vehicle into a group of Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday and was shot dead by the troops, the Israeli military said.

There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials. Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service said two of the soldiers were slightly wounded.

“In response to the immediate threat, forces fired shots toward the assailant,” the Israeli military said. An army spokeswoman said the driver had been killed.

A wave of Palestinian street attacks that began in 2015 has slowed but has not stopped. At least 261 Palestinians and one Jordanian citizen have been killed since the violence began.

Israel says at least 176 of those killed were carrying out attacks while others died in clashes and protests.

Forty Israelis, two U.S. tourists and a British student have been killed in Palestinian stabbings, shootings and car-rammings. A few of the attacks had been carried out by Arab Israeli citizens.

Israel blames the violence on incitement by the Palestinian leadership. The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, says desperation over the 50-year occupation of land sought by Palestinians for a state is the cause.

Palestinians want to establish an independent state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.