Palestinian Woman Killed Near Jewish Settlements In West Bank
NABLUS (AFP) - A young Palestinian woman was shot dead Sunday while driving on a road leading to Jewish settlements near Nablus in the northern West Bank, a hospital source and witnesses said.
A bullet pierced Fatma Jalal Abu Jeish, 20, in the heart, a hospital source said.
A Palestinian witness said Israeli soldiers killed the young woman as she drove on a road that bypasses Nablus for the village of Bayt Dajan.
The road was constructed specifically for Jewish settlers to avoid traveling through Palestinian-controlled areas.
An Israeli army spokesperson denied Israeli soldiers killed the woman.
Two other Palestinians were wounded, one seriously, from Israeli firing - one in the West Bank, the other in the Gaza Strip.
Witnesses to the fatality said the car driven by the sister of the young woman came under Israeli fire as it was some 100 hundred meters (110 yards) from a position being set up by Israeli soldiers.
An Israeli military spokesperson said, "there was an exchange of fire in the sector" between troops and armed Palestinians.
However, he said the "soldiers were unaware of any woman being killed or wounded."
This latest death brings the toll of fatalities since the September 28th start of the latest Intifada to 370, the vast majority of them Palestinians.
In a separate incident, a Palestinian traveling in a truck was seriously wounded by Israeli gunfire at a checkpoint near Hebron in the southern West Bank.
The Israelis claimed he was an activist from the armed wing of Fatah who "tried to flee when he was about to be arrested," but his brother who was on the scene told the press he was shot "after his hands and feet were tied."
