Palestinian sources say Israeli troops have shot dead a 95-year-old woman, the oldest victim of the 26-month Intifada, outside the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Witnesses and hospital staff say Fatima Mohammad Hassan Abeid died from at least one bullet in the back as the vehicle she was in was shot at by Israeli troops.
Israeli military sources said soldiers fired warning shots at a car which was moving fast on a road closed to Palestinians, and then fired at the wheels when it refused to stop.
They said they had no information about casualties.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat described the incident as a “war crime”.
‘Shooting in all directions’
Fatima Hasan, from the village of Attara, was shot as she sat in the back of a vehicle at a checkpoint outside the city, witnesses said.
Two other women were reportedly injured. “The soldiers were running towards us, shooting in all directions,” said 41-year-old Kifaya Rafat, another passenger who was wounded in the thigh during the incident. “They started to hit the windows of the car.”
She added that the after breaking the windows the troops retreated and began shooting at the vehicle from a distance.
Mr Erekat compared Fatima Hasan’s death to that of a 70-year-old man on Sunday who was crushed when a house in the town of Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip was demolished by Israelis.
The Israeli army said the house belonged to the family of Hisham Dab, an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber who killed 20 Israelis in a March 1996 attack in Tel Aviv.
Israel has maintained a blockade of Ramallah and other West Bank towns since a recent wave of suicide bombings.
At least 1,600 Palestinians and more than 600 Israelis have been killed since the uprising began in September 2000.
