Palestine: Unarmed Palestinian woman shot dead by Israeli forces in Bethlehem
By Qais Abu Samra
BETHLEHEM, Palestine (AA): An unarmed Palestinian woman was shot dead by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Sunday, according to the Ministry of Health. Israeli forces also killed two Palestinian men in the West Bank Sunday.
A ministry statement said that the woman, 35, was shot by Israeli forces and died from her wounds.
According to eyewitnesses, Israeli soldiers opened fire on the woman while walking near Husan village, west of Bethlehem, and was rushed to hospital where she breathed her last.
The state news agency Wafa identified the woman as Ghada Ibrahim Sbatein, a mother of six.
The Israeli army said the Palestinian woman had approached Israeli soldiers “in a suspicious manner.”
A military spokesperson confirmed that the woman was unarmed.
“The force opened fire as part of a suspect arrest procedure that included firing into the air. After she did not stop, the soldiers fired at her lower body, ”the army said in a statement.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh condemned the woman’s killing as “state terrorism”.
“The (Israeli) occupation soldiers do not stop their terrorist practices of shooting unarmed civilians,” Shtayyeh said in a statement, going on to hold Israeli authorities responsible for the current escalation in the Palestinian territories.
“The organized state terrorism by Israel requires the international rights’ organizations to condemn it and to work on stopping it,” he added.
In another killing, according to Israeli sources a Palestinian woman stabbed an officer near the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank, mildly wounding him, before the soldiers shot and killed her.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the woman, identified as Maha Kathem Awad Zaatari, 24, was from the Abu Da’jan area in Hebron city.
The Israeli occupation army said the woman arrived at the roadblock, where many soldiers and officers are stationed, and stabbed one before she was fatally shot.
In Bethlehem another Palestinian was killed by the Israeli forces.
The soldiers invaded the al-Khader town, south of the city, and killed a young man.
Local sources said the soldiers ambushed several Palestinians before killing a former political prisoner, Mohammad Ali Ghneim, 21.
The Palestinian was shot with a live round in the back before the bullet exited from the chest area.
He was standing near his home, close to the illegal Annexation Wall, when the soldiers shot him.
Palestinian medics rushed Mohammad to the al-Yamama hospital in al-Khader town, where he died from his serious wounds.
*Writing by Ahmed Asmar
Additional report by imemc.org
[Photo: Relatives mourn during the funeral of Ghada Sbatein, 35, who died from her wounds after being shot by Israeli soldiers, in Husan village west of Bethlehem city in the occupied West Bank, on April 10, 2022. Photojournalist :Wisam Hashlamoun/AA]
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