Middle East Eye / July 9, 2023
Israeli media report the 60-year-old woman was shot in the leg after allegedly trying to stab a security officer at a light rail station in Sheikh Jarrah.
A 60-year-old Palestinian woman was shot by an Israeli security guard on Sunday, with the guard claiming that she had pulled out a knife at a light rail station in Sheikh Jarrah, occupied East Jerusalem.
The woman was shot on Haim Bar Lev Street, near the Israeli national police headquarters. She was arrested shortly afterwards, according to the Arab48 news website.
The security guard was unharmed, and shot the assailant in the leg, according to Haaretz.
She has received medical treatment and is in a stable condition, police said.
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation (Kan 11) claimed that the Palestinian woman had tried to stab the security officer.
Israeli Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai visited the scene, at the Ammunition Hill station, according to reports.
Israeli forces increased their presence in the area following the incident.
“A report was received of an attempted stabbing at the train station in Jerusalem, and there were no injuries,” an Israeli police spokesperson said in a statement.
“The suspect was immediately neutralized by the train security guard, is currently being treated and is in a minor condition.”
The spokesperson added that the scene of the incident had been sealed off to collect evidence.
Jewish settler attacks
The latest incident comes after one of the most violent weeks in the West Bank in months.
On Friday Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man in Umm Safa village, north of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
He was identified by Palestinian media as Abdel-Jawad Saleh.
Residents of the village had gathered to join a rally against the establishment of a new Jewish settlement outpost near the southern entrance to the village last month.
Protected by the army, settlers attacked the Palestinian protesters with sticks and stones, wounding some, according to Arab48.
Muhammad Bahr, a member of Umm Safa’s village council, told WAFA news agency that Israeli soldiers shot and killed Saleh while he was in the northern area of the village.
Umm Safa, along with other villages near Ramallah and Nablus, has come under violent settler mob attacks in recent weeks that left at least one Palestinian killed.
Palestinians hold weekly rallies in the West Bank to denounce settlements and the occupation.
Israeli soldiers and settlers often attack them to disperse their protests, leading to the wounding and killing of Palestinians.
Nearly 700,000 Jewish settlers live in more than 250 Jewish settlements and outposts across the West Bank and East Jerusalem in violation of international law.
Saleh’s killing came after Israeli troops had raided Nablus earlier on Friday morning and killed two Palestinians, Khairy Shaheen and Hamza Moayed Muhammad Maqboul.
Violent week
Since Monday, Israeli forces have killed 18 Palestinians in one of the most deadly weeks in the West Bank for months.
According to a Middle East Eye tally, 192 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire this year, including 33 children – at a rate of more than one fatality per day.
At least 157 people died in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while the remaining 36 were killed in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Palestinians have killed 25 Israelis in the same period, including six children.
