Hamas today praised an attack by Palestinian gunmen in the southern West Bank that killed an Israeli policeman and left another two wounded.

"Hamas welcomes (Monday's) heroic operation carried out by the heroes of our people in Hebron, which killed a Zionist and wounded two more," the Palestinian Islamist movement said from its base in exile in Damascus.

"This heroic operation shows once again that our people will not submit to occupation and that resistance is the path to liberation and the return" (of refugees to Israel)."

Three Israeli policemen were wounded early on Monday when a number of Palestinian gunmen opened fire on their vehicle just south of the city of Hebron, near Al-Fawwar refugee camp and Beit Haggai Jewish settlement. One of them later died from his wounds.

Hamas, which has not claimed the attack, "pays homage to the fighters, and urges them to launch more heroic operations to confront the growing Judaisation of Jerusalem and the Zionist settlement campaigns," the movement added.

Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad condemned Monday's attack and warned against "the dangers of a new cycle of violence that only hurts Palestinian interests and serves Israeli settlement projects."