Ramallah: Israeli occupation forces shot and killed a Palestinian woman on Monday at an Israeli checkpoint near Qalqilia, north of the West Bank.
Rasha Owaisi, 23, was a senior at Al Quds University and engaged to be married. Her parents say it would be very unlikely their daughter was planning to attack occupation soldiers.
Rasha was shot from a distance when she did not open her bag after being commanded to by the occupation soldiers.
She did not understand the command as it was delivered in Hebrew.
Israeli authorities claim to have a note from Rasha asking her parents to forgive her, but her parents say the handwriting did not belong to their daughter.
The family says Israeli authorities have refused to hand over Rasha’s body.
On Sunday at the same Elyahu checkpoint in Qalqilia, a Palestinian stabbed and wounded an Israeli occupation soldier and managed to flee the scene. The attacker later handed himself in to the Palestinian security forces.
A surge of violence continues throughout the West Bank and the occupied East Jerusalem as Palestinians are demanding the status quo on Al Haram Al Sharif to be maintained.
Palestinians accuse the Israeli regime of changing the five-decade-old status quo which allows the Jews to visit the holy shrine but not pray there. Groups of Jewish colonists, however, have raided the site repeatedly and performed religious rituals, angering Palestinians who say the Israeli regime is tacitly encouraging them to do so.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, 80 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli occupation forces since the beginning of October and more than 3,000 Palestinian wounded in the escalating violence. Eleven Israelis have also been killed and tens others wounded.