Two Palestinian resistance fighters have been shot dead by Israeli occupation forces in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinian security and medical sources say.

The two men were shot by Israeli forces in broad daylight on Thursday in Haifa Street, in downtown Jenin, the sources said.

According to an AP report, the two men were driving through Jenin when four armed men jumped out of a car that had been parked for several hours and shot the men, the witnesses said. Their vehicle was riddled with gunfire.

Palestinian security sources identified the men as Mohammed Zaid and Ahmed Abahri, both 18 and members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, affiliated with the ruling Fatah party.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army.

The latest deaths brought to 4887 the number of people killed since the start of the Palestinian intifada in September 2000.

More than three-quarters of the victims were Palestinians.

PHOTO CAPTION

Residents remove from their car the bodies of Mohammed Zaid, 18, foreground, and Ahmed Abahri in the outskirts of the West Bank town of Jenin Thursday Nov. 17, 2005. (AP)