Israeli police shot dead a Palestinian woman and a man on Wednesday, saying they had tried to stab security forces at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli security forces gather around the body of a Palestinian after
he was shot dead by Israeli troops at Qalandia checkpoint near the West
Bank city of Ramallah April 27, 2016. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman
Palestinian woman argues with an Israeli border policeman near the
scene where a Palestinian woman and a man, who the Israeli military said
tried to stab security forces, were shot dead by Israeli police near
Qalandia checkpoint near Ramallah
An Israeli soldier gets out of a military vehicle near the scene where a
Palestinian woman and a man, who the Israeli military said tried to
stab security forces, were shot dead by Israeli police at Qalandia
checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah April 27, 2016.
REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Israeli soldier prepares to throw a stun grenade towards Palestinian
journalists near the scene where a Palestinian woman and a man, who the
Israeli military said tried to stab security forces, were shot dead by
Israeli police near Ramallah
An Israeli border policeman stands guard at the scene where a
Palestinian woman and a man, who the Israeli military said tried to stab
security forces, were shot dead by Israeli police near Qalandia
checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah April 27, 2016.
REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman
Israeli security forces gather around the body of a Palestinian after
he was shot dead by Israeli troops at Qalandia checkpoint near the West
Bank city of Ramallah April 27, 2016. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman
JERUSALEM: Israeli police shot dead a Palestinian woman and a
man on Wednesday, saying they had tried to stab security forces at a
checkpoint in the occupied West Bank.
In the last half year, Palestinian attacks have killed 28
Israelis and two visiting U.S. citizens. Israeli forces have killed at
least 193 Palestinians, 130 of whom Israel says were assailants. Many
others were shot dead in clashes and protests.
Police said the woman, holding a knife, and the man walked
rapidly towards police and other Israeli security guards in a
vehicles-only lane at the Qalandia checkpoint outside Jerusalem.
"Police called on them several times to stop. When they kept
advancing ... the officers neutralised the terrorists," a police
statement said.The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the two deaths and identified the woman as 23-year-old Maram Abu Ismail. The man with her was not immediately named although some reports said she was the woman's husband.
Police, who have been on high alert during the current Jewish Passover holiday week, issued a photograph of three knives on the ground which they said the two had been carrying.
Factors behind the bloodshed that began in October include Palestinian bitterness over stalled statehood negotiations and the growth of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, stepped up Jewish access to a disputed Jerusalem shrine, and Islamist-led calls for Israel's destruction.
The pace of what had been near-daily Palestinian stabbing, shootings and car-ramming attacks has slowed, although a suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus that wounded 15 people on April 18 has fuelled Israeli security concerns.
Israel attributes the fall-off in incidents partly to tighter cooperation with Palestinian security forces in the West Bank and more stringent monitoring of social media to identify potential assailants.
(Reporting by Jeffrey Heller and Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
- Reuters
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