Violence in areas where Palestinians want statehood has intensified since US-sponsored peace talks were halted in 2014.
Violence in areas where Palestinians want statehood has intensified since US-sponsored peace talks were halted in 2014.
Israeli soldiers on Wednesday shot dead a Palestinian woman wielding a knife, the military said – an account disputed by Palestinian officials – and a Palestinian man was killed during an Israeli incursion into the occupied West Bank .
Violence has escalated in areas where Palestinians want statehood since US-sponsored peace talks were halted in 2014. It has flared up again in recent weeks with deadly Palestinian attacks and deadly Israeli attacks inside Israel.
Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops began when forces stormed the village of Yabad to demolish the home of a Palestinian gunman who shot and killed five people in an Israeli town on March 30.
Doctors and residents said villagers threw stones at soldiers who opened fire on them.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said one person was killed and two others were seriously injured. It was not immediately clear whether all of them had participated in the confrontation.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment but confirmed that its soldiers were there to destroy the gunman’s home.
In a separate incident, the Israeli military said “an attacker armed with a knife moved towards an IDF (Israel Defense Force) soldier who was carrying out routine security activity near the village of Al Arub”.
“The troops responded with live fire,” it said.
A hospital in the nearby Palestinian city of Hebron confirmed the woman’s death.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the killing as a “territorial execution”.
“She was on her way to work and there was no incident or danger to the perpetrators,” the ministry said in a statement.