RAMALLAH, Feb. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Three Palestinians were wounded by Israeli troops in a West Bank village on Sunday, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.

    The three were wounded as Israeli troops tried to disperse a group of stone-throwing Palestinians who protested against graffiti painted by Jewish settlers on the wall of the village mosque, according to Palestinian security sources.

    Meanwhile, an Israeli army source said that an Israeli woman was lightly injured by rocks and taken to hospital for medical treatment.

    The violence erupted as local residents found on the wall ofthe village mosque a slogan written in Hebrew which blasphemed the Prophet Mohammad along with a Star of David.

    The residents and the Israeli source said that the graffiti were painted by settlers from a nearby settlement.

    Israeli troops, rushing to the village upon learning the incident, erased the graffiti and an investigation was currently underway.

    Sunday's violence came against a backdrop of widespread protests across the Palestinian territories against cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad which were printed in some Western publications. Enditem