JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli security forces shot dead three Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, Israeli police said in a statement.

The police said special forces had "thwarted a squad from the Jenin refugee camp that was on its way to carry out an attack".

Hazem Qassem, a Hamas Gaza spokesman, said the deaths would not go unpunished.

"The enemy, which assassinated three of our Palestinian people, will not escape paying the price of its crimes," he said in a statement.

The Israeli police said the head of a militant squad who was "involved in military action against Israeli security forces and advancing military activity directed by terrorists in the Gaza Strip," had been killed along with two other squad members.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the security forces and said Israel "will continue to act against those who seek our lives anywhere and at any time."

Violence has worsened in the West Bank since last year with stepped-up Israeli raids amid Palestinian street attacks on Israelis.

Separately, Washington has condemned as terrorism the killing of a Palestinian by suspected Jewish settlers, in sharpened language that appeared to reflect U.S. frustration with the recent surge in violence under Israel's hard-right government.

(Reporting by Emily Rose, Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Hugh Lawson)