Elderly Palestinian woman shot, injured by Israeli soldiers in West Bank

An elderly Palestinian woman was shot and seriously injured by Israeli troops near the Gush Etzion junction south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on Sunday morning, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Israeli and Palestinian media sources said that 60-year-old Rehab Al-Huroub, a resident of the village of Husan, was shot and critically wounded in the leg by Israeli troops.

The Israeli army said that that she had tried to attack a group soldiers with a knife. Gush Etzion is one of the main settlement blocs in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967.

Last January, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian man at the Gush Etzion junction, also claiming he had tried to attack them with a knife.

Approximately 70,000 settlers live in 22 settlements there, in constructions considered illegal under international law.

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Video footage published on Twitter by Israeli social media users purported to show Al-Huroub walking towards the soldiers while they pointed guns at her, told her to stop, and then fired warning shots before injuring her in her leg.

The Times of Israel said that Al-Huroub was taken to the Shaare Zedek Medical Centre in Jerusalem in “critical condition” after the incident.

WAFA also reported on Sunday that Israeli intelligence forces detained four Palestinians in the Jabal Al-Mukabber area of east Jerusalem, saying that they had attacked an Israeli.

There has been an ongoing Israeli campaign of harassment and intimidation of Palestinians in east Jerusalem since the beginning of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Palestinians have been prevented from calling prayers and breaking their fasts at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, while last month Jewish extremists marched through east Jerusalem under Israeli police protection, attacking and injuring scores of Palestinians.

WAFA said that 103 Israelis stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Sunday. Extremist Israelis claim that the Al-Aqsa Mosque was built on the site of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem and want to demolish the mosque in order to rebuild the temple.

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