RAMALLAH, Wednesday, June 16, 2021 (WAFA) – The Health Ministry today confirmed the killing of a Palestinian woman by Israeli military gunfire at the entrance of Hizma town, north of Jerusalem.

It announced that Mai Afaneh, a 29-year-old mother from Abu Dis town, was killed by Israeli forces at the entrance of the town.

Israeli forces opened fire at Afaneh, who used to teach mental health courses at al-Istiqlal University in Jericho, while she was driving her vehicle at the entrance of the town.

Instead of taking the right street, Afaneh drove her vehicle in a road under construction for military purposes before being killed by Israeli soldiers, as explained by WAFA correspondent.

Israeli army claimed that the slain woman “attempted to carry out an attempted combined and ramming attack” before being gunned down.

While some Palestinians were involved in such attacks, many others were injured or killed in similar incidents under the pretext of alleged stabbing attempts.

Israeli has been criticized for its reflexive use of lethal force and “extrajudicial killings” when Palestinian alleged attackers no longer pose an immediate threat. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that circumstances surrounding such killings over the past months remain disputed.

Various international, Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations have slammed Israel’s policy of “extrajudicial killings” against Palestinians.

Palestinians have always maintained that such incidents among other measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel’s 54-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler colonial project which it enforces with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians.

K.F.