Rights and Accountability 18 September 2019
Israeli forces fatally shot a Palestinian woman near the Qalandiya checkpoint separating Ramallah from Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.
Israeli police claimed that Nayfeh Kaabneh was walking towards its forces on a pathway designated for vehicles when they asked her to stop.
They added that the 50-year-old from nearby Qalandiya refugee camp pulled out a knife before a security guard shot and injured her in the legs.
In the video above, Kaabneh appears to pose no plausible danger to anyone around her when she is shot.“They could have controlled her,” bystander Mohammed Hammad Jaradat told the publication Middle East Eye.
“They were five soldiers and she was some seven meters away.”
According to eyewitnesses, Kaabneh was left to bleed without first aid.
Photos show the woman lying on the ground in a large pool of blood.
She was eventually transferred to Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem for treatment, where she was pronounced dead.
Israeli forces prevented medical personnel from the Palestine Red Crescent Society from reaching Kaabneh to provide emergency treatment, the group stated.
Occupation forces have habitually denied first aid to Palestinians they have shot, causing them to bleed to death.
No Israeli soldiers were injured during the incident, as in many previous cases in which an alleged Palestinian attacker was killed.
Palestinians in a nearby vehicle filmed the shooting and circulated the video on social media. In the video above, they can be heard saying, “he shot her in the leg.”
A metal object appears to fall near Kaabneh, which one of the armed Israelis kicks with his foot.
Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld tweeted a photo of the knife he claimed Kaabneh had carried:
Saleh Higazi, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East program, said that Kaabneh “did not appear to be carrying a firearm and did not pose any immediate threat to the guards or to the lives of people in the vicinity when they opened fire.”
“This strongly suggests that her killing may have been unlawful,” Higazi stated.
Higazi added that “the complete lack of accountability for Israeli forces who carry [out] human rights violations” is what allows the pattern of unlawful killings to continue.
He pointed to Israel’s “horrific track record of committing serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.”
Palestinian resistance organization Hamas called Israel’s “cold-blooded” killing of Kaabneh a continuation of the “criminal sadism of the occupation army in killing and firing at the weak and defenseless.”
Israeli forces killed a young woman and her teenage brother at the same checkpoint in April 2016.
Correction: This article originally named the slain Palestinian woman as Alaa Wahdan, citing initial reports. The woman has since been identified as Nayfeh Kaabneh, 50.
Comments
Not news
Permalink skipNclair replied on
This is not news, but would be news if the story read no Palestinians killed or injured today.
Well actually it is news
Permalink Well actually it is news replied on
Actually this is news. Just because you don't find it surprising doesn't mean it isn't and the sepcifics of this killing do count as news.
I also hope there are days when no Palestinians are killed although these amy well be sadly be far fewer than I'd like.
Crime inspired by racism
Permalink Nestor Makhno replied on
The western media ignore it . RT German brings this news.
And even up to now there are people who find excuses for the criminals who are pepetrating this.
The west is a sick phenomenen. When this will end?
It's common knowledge that a
Permalink George Joy replied on
It's common knowledge that a military learn effective hand to hand combat to disarm people with knives they shot her because it's easier and they don't value the lives of other people. Also why would she want to stab them? If they stopped the illegal occupation of their country they'd probably not get stabbed so much...just a thought
Evilness
Permalink oliver replied on
The incidence of this poor woman being murdered for no cause sickens me. Israel is no friend of mine.
as the world turns
Permalink Human angel replied on
I hate to see the Israeli's when the world turns.It'a matter of time.