The military wing of the Islamist Hamas movement, Izeldein al-Qassam Brigades, on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the attack in the West Bank in which four Israelis were killed, dpa reported.
In a cellphone text message sent to reporters, the group claimed responsibility for what it called a "the heroic attack" near Hebron in the southern West Bank.
The group said earlier that the attack was "a natural response to the crimes of the Israeli occupation and its settlers ... It is a reiteration that the armed Palestinian resistance is present despite the war to uproot it."
An Israeli military spokeswoman said two women and two men were killed while riding in a car at the Bani Naim intersection near Kiryat Arba, an Israeli settlement located just outside the city of Hebron.
The attack recalled the kind of violence of the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, in the West Bank of a decade ago. In recent years however the region had become relatively more peaceful.
The attack came ahead of face-to-face talks set to open Thursday in Washington between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
It took place as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was en route to Washington and while Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will open Thursday's talks.