Palestinian woman killed, Israeli teen wounded in shootings

Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian woman, whom they accused of running over a number of Israelis in the town of al-Khalil (Hebron) in the West Bank.

Shortly afterwards, a Palestinian stabbed and seriously wounded an Israeli at a West Bank settlement north of Jerusalem around the Shaar Binyamin industrial zone, the army said, adding that the assailant fled.

Eleven Israelis have also been killed during the same period.

The woman was identified as Nasreen Hassan, 40, who is married to a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip.

At the entrance to another settlement, Beitar Illit, a Palestinian woman stabbed and lightly injured a security guard who then shot and wounded her, an Israeli military spokeswoman said.

There were no clashes or attacks in the city on Saturday as troops searched for the assailants. “One crude cartoon making the rounds on Facebook, including on the official Palestinian TV page before it disappeared late Tuesday, depicts an Israeli soldier as an ape, accompanied by a pig, over a bloodied youth”, The Times wrote.

Tensions in the occupied territories have dramatically escalated in recent weeks due to Israeli regime’s imposition of restrictions in August on the entry of Palestinian worshipers to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

On Friday afternoon, shots were fired at Jewish worshippers leaving a major shrine in the Israeli-controlled downtown area, wounding two people, one of them seriously, the Israeli military said. Guns and assault rifles are available and accessible in the West Bank, including on the black market and in the possession of Palestinian militant groups. The hospital confirmed her age and said she had died before being admitted.

Of the Palestinians killed during that period, at least 22 were in Hebron and the surrounding villages.

The attack comes just hours after a Palestinian was shot dead near the Tapuah Junction south of Nablus after allegedly ramming a vehicle into three Israelis.

But it has already drawn Israeli Jewish responses and counter-arguments to the claims made in its posts, and its establishment was reported in mainstream Israeli media Sunday, including Israel Radio’s morning news broadcast.

Israel has blamed the violence on incitement by Palestinian political and religious leaders.