Jerusalem - Arab Today
A 19-year-old Palestinian woman approached Israeli border police with a knife in a tense area of the West Bank on Wednesday and was shot dead by officers, police said.
A police statement said the woman approached officers at the Tapuah junction in the north of the occupied West Bank, ignored orders to stop and pulled the knife. “At this point the officers shot her,” police said, adding that she was killed.
Police identified her as a resident of Asira Al-Shimaliya, a village north of Nablus, which is located near the Tapuah junction.
Also known as Zaatara junction and with Israeli settlements nearby, it has been the site of a number of violent incidents. The Palestinian Health Ministry said “a woman was killed after being shot by the occupation forces at Zaatara checkpoint.”
It identified her as Raheeq Shajeyeh Youssef. The incident comes as Jews celebrate the weeklong holiday of Sukkot, the third of three successive Jewish holidays that have led to tensions with the Palestinians in the past.
Analysts say Palestinian frustration with the Israeli occupation and settlement-building in the West Bank, comatose peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest.
Last week, Jews marked Yom Kippur.
Source: Arab News