Israeli soldiers have shot and killed three Palestinian protesters and wounded about 100 on Thursday in confrontations with several thousand people demonstrating in the occupied West Bank against a 17-day-old Israeli offensive in Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said.

AFP reported that one of those killed had been named as 25-year-old Mohammed al-Aaraj.

The Israeli military confirmed troops had used "riot dispersal means" – a term used to cover weapons such as rubber bullets and tear gas – against protesters who threw rocks and firebombs at them and blocked a road with burning tyres.

"There are thousands of rioters there," an army spokeswoman told AFP.

"They are rolling burning tyres and throwing Molotov cocktails and fireworks at soldiers and border police," she added.

She could not confirm or deny the use of live rounds.

The protest erupted after allies of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement marched from the West Bank city of Ramallah to the edges of Jerusalem in protest against Israel's war against Hamas militants in Gaza, where the Palestinian death toll has topped 760.

A doctor at Ramallah hospital said three people had died after being shot, including a man in his 20s who was injured in the head, while at least 100 other people were treated for various injuries after the protest. Israel Radio said the protest appeared to be the largest since the 2000-2005 Palestinian second intifada, or uprising.

Israeli troops have killed two other Palestinians this week in smaller confrontations in the West Bank, territory Israel now occupies after capturing it along with Gaza in the 1967 "six-day war".

Protests were also reported in Jerusalem, where police confronted Palestinian protesters in and near the old walled city, including outside a flashpoint holy site revered by Muslims and Jews.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said several officers were injured by rocks thrown at them in Jerusalem and that about 20 protesters were arrested.