Five members of an Israeli family were injured on Friday on a road between Jerusalem and Bethlehem when a Palestinian man threw acid on them, according to news reports.

After pouring acid on the family, including three young children, at a checkpoint along Route 60, the man tried to flee when he was shot in the chest, an employee with Magen David Adom emergency services told journalists.

Before he was shot, Ynet reported that the man attempted to attack onlookers with a screw driver before he was chased by an armed civilian, and then shot by Israeli border police.

The man has been taken to a local hospital while paramedics administered first aid to members of the family, including a 40-year-old man with acids wounds to his face and eyes, Ynet reported.

Earlier on Friday, a Palestinian driver allegedly attempted to run over two Israeli soldiers at a military checkpoint in Nablus. The Israeli army has opened an investigation into the incident.

Israeli army spokesman Peter Lerner said the two soldiers had jumped aside as the driver tried to crash into them. The driver, who was wounded during the incident, has been detained, Lerner said.

Tension has run high in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since late October, when Israel briefly closed the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound after right-wing Israeli activist Yehuda Glick was injured in a drive-by shooting in West Jerusalem.

Unrest mounted further when Israeli forces, during a raid on his East Jerusalem home, killed 32-year-old Mu'taz Hijazi who had been suspected of shooting Glick.

Since then, several Israelis have been killed – and several others injured – in a spate of what have been characterised as 'lone wolf' attacks by Palestinians, both inside Israel and in the occupied territories.