Palestinian woman shot dead during stabbing attempt — police

A Palestinian woman was shot and apparently killed by Border Police guards as she attempted to stab officers at a checkpoint north of Jerusalem early Monday afternoon, police said.

A police spokesperson said troops manning the Ras Bidu checkpoint opened fire after the woman pulled out a knife and advanced toward a border guard.

There were no injuries to security forces, police said in a statement.

The woman was pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene. She had no identifying documents on her, the police said.

A knife police say a woman used in an attempted stabbing attack at the Ras Bidu checkpoint on May 23, 2016. (Police spokesman)

Police said they initially shot in the air, but after the woman refused to stop, shot at her body.

“I understood immediately this was a terror attack. The alertness of the soldiers next to me without a doubt saved the life of a soldier who was next to me,” a border police commander at the scene said in a statement.

The Ras Bidu checkpoint lies along the security barrier between the West Bank villages of Bidu and Beit Iksa.

The identity of the woman was not immediately clear.

[mappress mapid=”5693″]

The attempted attack came amid an extended dip in the number of security incidents after months of near-daily stabbings, car-rammings, and shootings by Palestinians that claimed the lives of 29 Israelis and four foreign nationals. Some 200 Palestinians have also been killed over the same period, the majority of them while carrying out attacks against Israeli civilians or soldiers, and the rest during clashes with troops, according to the Israeli army.

Last Saturday evening a gunman opened fire on an Israeli bus traveling in the West Bank. No injuries were reported in the incident, which occurred near the settlement of Tekoa, southeast of Jerusalem, but the bus sustained some damage. According to witnesses, the gunman opened fire from a passing vehicle.