Palestinian woman shot by Israeli troops amid soaring tensions
(Update 1: Adds shooting of Palestinian woman)
Jerusalem, Apr 10 (EFE).- Israeli soldiers on Sunday shot a Palestinian woman in the town of Husan, near Bethlehem in the central West Bank, amid heightened tensions in the region following a recent spate of deadly attacks in Israel.
The Palestinian health ministry said she succumbed to her injuries in hospital where she was being treated for gunshot wounds to her leg.
“The soldiers acted to detain the suspect by firing warning shots into the air, according to arrest procedures.” After she “continued to approach, the soldiers fired at her lower body,” an Israeli military spokesman said, adding that “the incident is now under investigation.”
According to media reports citing Israeli defense sources, the woman, who has been identified as 47-year-old Ghada Ibrahim Aku ak-Sabateen, was unarmed when she was shot.
The shooting occurred after Israeli authorities imposed travel restrictions on the northern West Bank district of Jenin, as arrest operations continued in the city following four fatal attacks in Israel in just over two weeks that have killed 14 people.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) restricted pedestrians and vehicles from passing to and from the two military checkpoints in Jenin.
The Israeli military body that engages in coordinating civilian issues in the occupied Palestinian territories banned merchants and businessmen with permits from entering Israel and also suspended the entry permits of some 5,000 Palestinians living in Jenin.
The two most recent attacks — one in Tel Aviv on Thursday and the other in Bnei Brak city last week — were perpetrated by Palestinians from Jenin, prompting the Israeli forces to carry out sweeping arrest campaigns in the area.
On Saturday, an Israeli raid in the Jenin refugee camp triggered armed clashes with local groups, killing a Palestinian from the armed wing of Islamic Jihad.
The Israeli army early on Sunday said it had carried out an extensive anti-terrorist operation in Jabad, a town near to Jenin.
Israeli “special forces apprehended 8 terrorist suspects, confiscated weapons and an explosive prepared for a future attack,” the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) wrote on Twitter.
The Palestinian health ministry, meanwhile, said Sunday that 12 people were injured amid the Israeli raids in Jenin and other areas in the West Bank.
Akram Rajoub, the Palestinian governor of Jenin, condemned Israel’s restrictions on movement, calling it “a punishment on all of Jenin.”
Israel has controlled Palestinian borders since the Six-Day War in 1967 when it occupied the territories of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. EFE
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