Israeli Forces killed two Palestinians early Tuesday it had named as suspects in the June murder of three Israeli settlers in the West Bank, the army said.

"Overnight, Amer Abu Aisha and Marwan Qawame, murderers of Eyal, Gilad and Naftali -- were killed in exchange of fire with Israeli forces," army spokesman Peter Lerner said on his Twitter account.

The June abduction of the three teenagers from a hitchhiking stop in the southern West Bank sparked a huge Israeli search operation in which more than 400 Palestinians were arrested and at least five killed.

It also sparked the revenge killing by Jewish extremists of a Palestinian teenager and led to a surge in tensions that helped trigger the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in and around Gaza that ended on August 26.

Both factions in late August reached an open-ended Egyptian-brokered ceasefire halting the seven-week Israeli assault on the coastal enclave that left around 2,143 Palestinians dead and more than 12,000 others injured.

Seventy persons — including 64 soldiers — were killed on the Israeli side.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online