TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli forces shot and killed a 19-year-old Palestinian woman during a raid in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Monday.
The Israeli military said soldiers opened fire on a vehicle that was accelerating toward them after they signaled for it to stop, adding that the incident was under review.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the woman as Sanaa al-Tal, 19. The incident occurred in the city of Beitunia, where the military said troops were on an arrest raid.
Palestinians and rights groups accuse Israeli soldiers of using excessive force against Palestinians, without being held accountable. The military says it contends with complex, life-threatening scenarios.
In a separate incident, Israeli police said a soldier shot an Israeli man who he suspected was going to carry out an attack, in the city of Raanana, north of Tel Aviv. Israeli media said the man was later pronounced dead.
Israeli-Palestinian tensions have been high for months, with the Israeli military carrying out nightly raids in the West Bank since the spring, when a spate of attacks against Israelis killed 19 people.
More than 130 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year, making 2022 the deadliest since 2006. The Israeli army says most of the Palestinians killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
The military raids have prompted a series of Palestinian shooting attacks, killing at least four more Israelis in recent weeks.
Israel says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. The Palestinians say the raids are aimed at cementing Israel’s open-ended 55-year-old occupation of lands they want for their hoped-for state.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians seek all three territories for their future independent state.
