Palestinian woman shot by Israeli troops dies

JERUSALEM

An Israeli soldier aims his rifle at a woman said to be 19-year-old Palestinian student Hadeel al-Hashlamun, before she was shot and killed by Israeli troops, at an Israeli checkpoint in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron September 22, 2015. Reuters Photo

A Palestinian woman who was shot by Israeli troops on Sept. 22 has succumbed to her injuries, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency has reported.

An Israeli military spokesperson said the woman had been shot at an army checkpoint in the West Bank city of Hebron after trying to stab an Israeli soldier.

The Isarel military said forces opened fire and “identified a hit.” 

Local residents, however, disputed the army’s claims that the woman - identified as 18-year-old Hadeel Hashlmon - had attacked a soldier.
 
“The soldiers wanted her to remove her niqab [Islamic face covering], but she refused,” Issa Amro, director of Youth Against Settlements, a Hebron-based Palestinian activist group, told Anadolu Agency.

“When she tried to leave the checkpoint, they shot her,” he added.

According to Amro, volunteers from the group witnessed the incident. Earlier the same day, they released photos that appeared to show Israeli soldiers pointing their guns at the woman and laying her injured body on the ground.

The incident followed the death of a Palestinian man on Sept. 21, who, the Israeli army alleged, died when an explosive device he had intended to throw detonated prematurely.

The Islamic Jihad militant group identified the man as Diyaa Abdul Halim Talahmeh, claimed him as one of its members and said he had been shot dead by Israeli soldiers. 

The violence comes amid rising tensions surrounding Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. The site, holy to both Jews and Muslims, has been a flashpoint for violence in recent days.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned Sept. 22 there was a risk of a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising, erupting if violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem did not ease and peace talks with Israel did not resume.