Gaza official: Palestinian woman killed on Israeli border

News of Amna Qdaih’s death comes day after IDF says it struck rocket launcher in Strip, shot at suspicious Palestinians at border

By AP and ToI Staff 1 March 2014, 11:50 am Edit

Illustrative. An Israeli tank parks in position overlooking the Gaza Strip on December 25, 2013. (AP/Tsafrir Abayov)

A Gaza health official said a 50-year-old woman was shot and killed on the border with Israel, the morning after Israel said troops fired on Palestinians suspiciously approaching the boundary.

News reports Saturday claimed the woman, identified as Amna Qdaih, was shot for walking too close to the Israeli-Gaza security fence. She may have suffered mental illness, Gaza residents claimed.

The health official, Ashraf Al Kedra, said Qdaih’s body was retrieved Saturday morning and transferred to a hospital.

Gaza residents said there had been Israeli shooting in the area late Friday, but that the reason for it was unclear.

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The Israeli military said soldiers spotted Palestinians approaching the border and called on them to stop. An IDF spokeswoman said when calls were ignored the troops fired warning shots in the air and later toward the Palestinians, at their legs, and that one was hit, Reuters reported.

Earlier the military said it carried out an airstrike in Gaza on a rocket launcher, “to eliminate an imminent threat.”