2 Palestinians Killed in Confrontations With Israeli Troops
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A Palestinian militant died when a bomb he was trying to throw at Israeli forces blew up near the West Bank city of Hebron overnight, officials from both sides said on Tuesday, as tension mounted on the eve of the Jewish Yom Kippur fast day.
Hours later in the same area, the military said troops shot a Palestinian woman as she tried to stab a soldier. A family member said Hadeel al-Hashlamun, a 19-year-old student, was taken to an Israeli hospital where she was later declared dead.
In a picture posted on Facebook, a soldier could be seen aiming his rifle at a woman said to be Hashlamun, standing a short distance away. She was completely covered in a black robe.
There has been a surge in confrontations, often involving rock and petrol bomb throwing, since Israeli-Palestinian peace talks broke down in April 2014 – though violence has not approached the levels of past Palestinian uprisings.
Israeli forces were on particularly high alert in Jerusalem and the West Bank on Tuesday. Security officials said travel between the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel would be limited until the end of Yom Kippur at midnight (2100 GMT) on Wednesday.
A Palestinian hospital official said the 23-year-old militant was showered in shrapnel and also shot in the head, though the military said it had not shot him.
The Islamic Jihad militant group named the man as Diyaa Abdul Halim Talahmeh, claimed him as one of its members and said he had been shot dead by Israeli soldiers.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said the man was killed when an improvised explosive device he tried to throw at an army patrol near the village of Kharsa, southwest of Hebron, detonated.
Israeli-Palestinian strife has risen sharply in recent weeks as Arab states and Palestinians have accused Israeli forces of violations at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites.
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