Palestinian motorist shot dead by Israeli police

Salamah al-Kaabneh, 22, was killed by Israeli police near Jericho, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Israeli authorities said two accomplices fled the car, which a statement claimed contained stolen goods and equipment used to carry out burglaries.

Israeli police had received information regarding a "suspicious car" and set up a checkpoint in the Jordan Valley.

While examining a vehicle there, another car overtook it and accelerated toward an officer who beckoned it to stop.

"When the car did not heed the officer's orders to stop, the officer shot at the car," police said in a statement. 

"As a result of the gunfire, the car stopped and its Palestinian motorist, a resident of one of the villages nearby, was hit and pronounced dead."

There have been sporadic Palestinian attacks, including car-rammings, against Israeli civilians and security forces in the West Bank.

But in Sunday's statement the police refrained from calling the Palestinian as a "terrorist", identifying him instead only as a motorist.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. More than 600,000 Israeli Jews live in settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The occupied West Bank has seen a spate of car-ramming attacks in recent months, mainly targeting Israeli forces and settlers who live in settlements deemed illegal under international law.

Settler attacks on Palestinians have become commonplace in the West Bank, with settlers often throwing stones, vandalising property and destroying olive trees belonging to local Palestinians. There have been numerous cases of settlers murdering Palestinian locals.

In February, a Palestinian bus driver was assaulted and beaten by a group of Israeli settlers near the West Bank city of Hebron.

Settlers from Hebron are known to be especially prone to violence, yet act with almost total impunity while under the protection of Israeli forces.

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".

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