HEBRON, West Bank (CNN) - Palestinian gunmen shot and wounded two Jewish settlers on Monday in the divided West Bank town of Hebron, witnesses and Israel Radio said.

"About 20 bullets were fired at a van carrying settlers near the Cave of the Patriarchs. Two people were wounded," one seriously, said David Wilder, a spokesman for Hebron's Jewish settlers.

Witnesses said the victims were traveling to work at a Jewish settlement in Hebron from the nearby Kiryat Arba settlement when gunmen opened fire.

"I saw the car riddled with bullets," Orit Struk, a Jewish settler from Hebron, told Israel Radio.

The shooting occurred in an Israeli-controlled area, which the army sealed off, witnesses said.

Some 400 Jewish settlers live surrounded by more than 100,000 Palestinians in Hebron.

Palestinians frequently clash with Jewish settlers and the army in Hebron, which was divided into Palestinian and Israeli-controlled areas under a January 1997 interim deal.The city is largely controlled by the Palestinian Authority.

In recent months there have been several attacks on Israelis on the same bus route.

The Cave of the Patriarchs is holy to both Muslims and Jews as the traditional burial place of Abraham.

The Israeli army informed Palestinian police of the attack and asked for the attackers' arrest, Israeli Radio reported.

The attackers were reported to have escaped into the Palestinian-controlled sections of the city.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.