HADERA, (Israel): Two Israeli police were killed in a “terrorist” attack Sunday in the northern city of Hadera before officers shot the assailants dead, police and medics said.

The deadly attack comes as four Arab foreign ministers and the US secretary of state are gathering in southern Israel in an unprecedented regional meeting. Police said that “two terrorists arrived at Herbert Samuel Street in Hadera, and began shooting at a police force there,” resulting in two deaths.

“A special police force that was at the site engaged and after a short gunfight, neutralised” the attackers, police said in a statement. Dudu Boani, the police deputy commander for the region, told reporters that the two victims of the attack were police officers.

He said the assailants were shot dead. The Magen David Adom emergency medical responders said that “two Israelis” were killed in the attack, with four other people taken to hospital and two more treated at the site.

Less than a week ago, a convicted Islamic State group sympathiser killed four Israelis in a stabbing and car-ramming spree in the southern city of Beersheba.