Jerusalem, June 16: The Israeli military on Wednesday shot and killed a Palestinian woman who it said tried to ram her car into a group of soldiers guarding a West Bank construction site.
In a statement, the army said soldiers opened fire at the woman in Hizmeh, just north of Jerusalem, after she exited the car and pulled out a knife. The statement did not say how close the woman was to the soldiers, and the army did not release any photos or video of the incident.
In recent years, Israel has seen a series of shootings, stabbings and car ramming attacks against Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank. Most have been carried out by Palestinians with no apparent links to organized militant groups.
Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups say the soldiers often use excessive force and could stop the assailants without killing them. In some cases, they say that innocent people have been identified as attackers and shot.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa confirmed the woman's death, identifying her only as a 29-year-old resident of Abu Dis, a West Bank town on the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem. It gave no further details.
