A Palestinian woman was shot and killed in her home in the volatile northern West Bank town of Jenin, where the Palestinian Authority is carrying out a rare campaign against militants.
The family of Shatha al-Sabbagh, a 22-year-old journalism student, said she was killed by a sniper with the Palestinian security forces late Saturday while she was with her mother and two small children. They said there were no militants in the area at the time.
A statement from the Palestinian security forces said she was shot by “outlaws” — the term it has been using for local militants who have been battling Israeli forces in recent years. The security forces condemned the shooting and vowed to investigate it.
Separately, a fourth infant has died of hypothermia in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by nearly 15 months of war are huddled in tents along the rainy, windswept coast, while an Israeli strike on a hospital that the army said was being used by militants killed seven people.
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It is deeply unpopular among Palestinians, largely because it cooperates with Israel on security matters, even as Israel accuses it of incitement and of generally turning a blind eye to militancy.
In a statement, the al-Sabbagh family accused the Palestinian security forces of having become “repressive tools that practice terrorism against their own people instead of protecting their dignity and standing up to the (Israeli) occupation.”
The Hamas also blamed the security forces and condemned the shooting. It noted that al-Sabbagh was the sister of one of its fighters who was killed in a battle with Israeli troops last year.
Later on Sunday, hundreds of people took part in a demonstration in Jenin in support of the Palestinian security forces. The rally was organized by President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, which dominates the Palestinian Authority and its security forces.
Palestinian security forces launched a rare operation earlier this month in Jenin that they said was aimed at restoring law and order, while critics accuse the authority of aiding the occupation.
Strike on a hospital in Gaza City kills 7
An Israeli strike on the upper floor of a hospital in Gaza City on Sunday killed at least seven people and wounded several others, according to the Civil Defense, first responders affiliated with the Hamas-run government.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas control center inside the building, which it said was no longer serving as a hospital.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 45,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 100,000, according to local health authorities. They say women and children make up more than half the fatalities but do not distinguish between militants and civilians in their count. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
UNB/AP/NY
