BICOM

The IDF is investigating the shooting of 18-year-old Hadeel al-Hashlamun in Hebron on Tuesday morning, after it was reported that she attempted to stab Israeli troops.

The IDF said that al-Hashlamun approached a checkpoint in Hebron which separates the Israeli and Palestinian sections of the city and raised suspicions, but that soldiers acted in accordance with protocol. A statement said, “The woman [al-Hashlamun] arrived at a police checkpoint and triggered the metal detector when she went through… She was told to stop and didn’t, she kept walking towards the soldiers and was told to stop again. Then gunfire was aimed at the floor, at which point she pulled out a knife, so she was shot in the leg. She then continued towards the soldiers and was shot again.”

Shortly after the incident, the IDF spokesman’s unit released a picture of the knife which they said was used by al-Hashlamun. However, since then Palestinians who were reportedly at the scene have challenged the version of events. They have said that there was no sign that al-Hashlamun was armed and that she did not speak Hebrew and so a language barrier existed. A Palestinian group called Youth Against Settlements published a series of pictures documenting the incident, which show Israeli soldiers raise their guns to al-Hashlamun, who does not appear to have a weapon.

Al-Hashlamun was taken to hospital in Jerusalem, but later died of her wounds. As her funeral took place in Hebron yesterday, around 200 Palestinians rioted at the checkpoint where the shooting occured and threw firebombs at Israeli soldiers.

Tensions have been high in Jerusalem and the West Bank in recent weeks and during this period a number of Israeli soldiers have been stabbed at checkpoints. In Hebron earlier this week, an Islamic Jihad member died when a grenade he intended to hurl at an Israeli military jeep exploded prematurely. Meanwhile, a similar attempt to throw explosives at soldiers was prevented in the Jordan Valley last night.