Two Palestinians were treated in hospital for serious injuries, medics say

Several Palestinian workers have been hurt in an attack by a group of Jewish settlers in the northern West Bank.

One worker suffered serious head injuries, as dozens of masked settlers threw rocks at their vehicles.

Police say no arrests have been made following the attack near the Palestinian city of Nablus, which is circled by Israeli settlements.

Friction and violence is common between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank, captured by Israel in 1967.

Palestinian medics said two men were taken to hospital, one with a fractured skull, and four others were treated for minor injuries.

The violence happened on a road between Nablus and a nearby settlement called Kedumim, founded by Orthodox Jews in 1975 who believe the West Bank was promised to them by God.

The settlement movement is currently in open conflict with the Israeli government, which has adopted plans to evict small groups of hardline settlers from outposts not officially recognised.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the plans as he resisted calls from US President Barack Obama to freeze building activity in all settlements, a move correspondents say is Washington's attempt to relaunch the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the 1967 war. It has settled about half a million Jews there, in defiance of international law, amid a population of about three million Palestinians.