Israeli forces arrest woman at West Bank checkpoint

Israeli soldiers arrested a young Palestinian woman at Qalandia checkpoint on Saturday.

The unidentified woman was arrested on a road that connects Jerusalem and Ramallah after Israeli forces claimed she was planning to stab a soldier, according to local Palestinian sources.

A wave of stabbing attacks against Israeli soldiers and settlers by lone-wolf Palestinian assailants erupted in 2015 but has since become sporadic.

At times, Palestinians are arrested or even shot by Israeli forces under a pretext of planning a stabbing attack without any evidence.

Last year, 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 has occupied the West Bank since 1967. More than 600,000 Israelis live in settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

All Israeli settlements across the occupied West Bank are classed as illegal under international law, particularly Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which asserts that "the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies".

Israeli forces and settlers routinely attack Palestinians in the occupied territories, demolishing their homes, poisoning their livestock and vandalising their properties.

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