Tensions have been heightened in recent weeks by Palestinian shooting attacks in Israeli cities, an Israeli military crackdown in the northern West Bank, where some of the attackers came from, and recurring confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli police around the most sensitive religious site in Jerusalem. The army said it had opened fire after a group of suspects threw firebombs toward the soldiers. In a separate incident, Israeli troops shot and killed a 27-year-old Palestinian man in Azoun village near the town of Qalqilya early Saturday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Hamas praised the killing of the guard but stopped short of claiming responsibility for the shooting. It said it arrested two purported members of the Hamas militant group, but there was no immediate indication that the men were involved in the attack. Israeli forces on Saturday set up checkpoints and were conducting searches for the attackers in the area, the army said. In Gaza, the leader of the territory’s Hamas rulers Yehiyeh Sinwar called for stepping up attacks against Israeli targets in the West Bank, saying the “real battle arena is there.” In a speech, he saluted the attackers who killed the guard.