Palestinian mother killed by stone-hurling Israeli settlers

Sources told The New Arab's Arabic service that Aisha Mohammed Rabi, from the village of Bidya in the northern West Bank was killed and her husband injured by stones thrown at their vehicle by a group of Israeli settlers.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said that one of their teams transported Rabi, who had suffered a serious head injury, to the nearby Rafidia hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Pictures of the aftermath of the incident show the vehicle with a shattered windscreen and a large hole in the top corner where the rock hit.

Palestinians reported settlers throwing rocks at their cars along the same road in the northern the West Bank over the past few days, and said that the Israeli army, which has bulked up its presence in the area during a manhunt for a Palestinian knifeman, did not attempt to stop them.

Palestinian youths are routinely imprisoned on stone throwing charges.

Other locals reported damage to their cars from rocks thrown by settlers in the same area, according to official news agency WAFA.

The Israeli army have launched an investigation into the incident, the agency also reported. 

Local press said that Rabi, whose daughter was due to get married in two weeks, will undergo an autopsy on Saturday. She will then be buried in her hometown of Bidya, which declared a day of mourning on Saturday.

Social media was flooded with posts mourning Rabi’s death, many of them photos of the mother-of-eight smiling with her family.

Rabi’s death comes just hours after seven Palestinians were killed and nearly 200 others injured in Gaza during protests marking the 29th week of the Great March of Return.

The area surrounding the city of Nablus has one of the highest concentrations of Israeli settlements and has often been a flashpoint for violence.

Bands of settlers routinely vandalise buildings with anti-Arab graffiti, and destroy or poison olive groves, the source of one of the area’s main industries.

Some 800,000 settlers now live in the occupied West Bank, as Netanyahu's hard right government pushes ahead with their expansion at breakneck speed.

All Israeli settlements are seen as illegal under international law and major obstacles to peace as they are built on occupied Palestinian territory.