BICOM

The Shin Bet and Israeli Police have opened an investigation into the death of 47-year-old Aisha Mohammed Rabi, after a stone hit her car on Route 60 near the Tapuah junction on Friday.

The specialist division in the West Bank District Police that investigates violence by Israelis is managing the case, after allegations that the stone was thrown by Jewish settlers. The police have issued a gag order on the investigation.

Thousands of mourners attended Rabi’s funeral in Biddya, where she lived in the West Bank. A general strike was declared on Saturday in the town in response to her death and all local shops and business were closed. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas spoke on the phone with Rabi’s father and husband, offering his condolences. He said: “This is a very ugly crime that was committed by the settlers in the defence of the occupation state. It is inconceivable that this might pass without punishment. Our people will continue to remain steadfast on its land, no matter the sacrifices.”

UN Middle East envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, condemned the death “in which Aisha Al-Rabi, a mother of eight, was killed and her husband injured by stones allegedly thrown by Israeli assailants,” he wrote Sunday. He acknowledged the investigation and called on the Israeli authorities “to ensure that those responsible are swiftly brought to justice”.

Likud MK Yehudah Glick said that if the offenders were Jewish settlers, then “they must be found and put on trial as soon as possible, and punished. Killers are also enemies of the settlement movement”.

Rabi’s death was the latest in a series of violent attacks in the West Bank. On Thursday, two people were wounded in a stabbing attack at the entrance to the Samaria regional brigade headquarters in the West Bank. On Sunday 7 October two Israelis were shot dead at a factory in the Barkan Industrial Zone in the West Bank.