JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian woman in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday who they said had approached them while carrying a knife.
The military released a photo of what it said was the knife she was carrying. It said the soldiers were patrolling a highway near the Al-Aroub refugee camp in the southern West Bank. No soldiers were wounded.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the woman as Ghafran Warasna and said she was shot in the chest. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said the 31-year-old had been released from Israeli prison in April after serving three months.
An Israeli security official said Warasna was jailed from January to March after attempting to stab an Israeli police officer in the West Bank city of Hebron.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said she attempted to stab the soldier on Wednesday at “point-blank range.” There were no photos or videos immediately available to confirm the account.
The Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate said Warasna had worked on and off as a journalist for more than a decade. Dream Radio, a local station in Hebron, said she was on the way to their studio for a broadcast when she was killed.
Israeli-Palestinian violence has intensified in recent weeks with near-daily arrest raids by the Israeli military in the West Bank following a string of attacks by Palestinians that have killed at least 19 people.
Tensions have soared following the killing in the West Bank of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who worked for Al Jazeera, and an Israeli ultranationalist march through a Palestinian neighborhood in east Jerusalem.
Recent weeks have seen at least 35 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces. Some were gunmen killed in fighting with Israel, while others were shot while allegedly throwing stones or firebombs at Israeli troops in the West Bank. But Abu Akleh, an unarmed woman and at least two people who were bystanders were also among those killed.
Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbing attacks in recent years, often against Israeli soldiers. But Israel has also faced criticism from rights groups who say security forces sometimes use deadly force rather than arresting suspected attackers or stop them with nondeadly force.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians want it to be the main part of their future state. Nearly 3 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule in the territory, alongside a growing population of nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers who have Israeli citizenship. The last serious peace talks broke down more than a decade ago.
