Israeli forces shoot Palestinian woman at West Bank checkpoint

A Palestinian woman was shot and wounded on Friday after allegedly approaching an Israeli security checkpoint near Jerusalem with a knife, Israeli police said.

The woman approached the crossing point in Qalandia, between Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, in a lane designated for vehicles despite repeated calls from guards to stop, a statement said. 

She was wounded when security forces opened fire, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, adding that her injuries were not thought to be life-threatening.

Police said she was 35 and from Issawiya, a neighbourhood in east Jerusalem.

She was left for around an hour after the attack on the ground before receiving treatment, an AFP photographer at the checkpoint said.

Israel public radio said forces checked her for explosives before allowing her to be transported to a nearby hospital.

A wave of Palestinian attacks erupted last year, but the violence has greatly subsided in recent months.

Since October 2015, at least 246 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, at least 33 of them under the age of 18.

Rights groups accused Israel of carrying out "unlawful killings" against Palestinians.

Amnesty International said Israeli forces were displaying "an appalling disregard for human life by using reckless and unlawful lethal force against Palestinians."

The rights group said it sent a memorandum to authorities in Tel Aviv detailing at least 20 cases of "unlawful killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces."

"Palestinians were deliberately shot dead, despite posing no imminent threat to life, in what appear to be extrajudicial executions," Amnesty said.

Israel says a Palestinian campaign of incitement is fanning the violence, arguing that most of the Palestinian killed were allegedly carrying out knife, gun or car ramming attacks.

Many Palestinians were also shot dead during protests, while some died in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

Since the start of the violence, Israeli forces have confiscated the bodies of Palestinians killed - often for several months - claiming this would deter further acts of violence.