Israeli troops kill Palestinian woman in West Bank raid - 1 May, 2006 - News

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian woman and wounded her two daughters on Monday when they fired on a West Bank house that an Islamic Jihad militant was hiding in, Palestinian officials and the army said.

Photo: Israeli troops kill Palestinian woman in West Bank raid

The army said it had opened an investigation into the incident in the West Bank town of Tulkarem and was sorry for any injury caused to innocent civilians.

The troops spent more than an hour trying to convince the fugitive to surrender, the army said. When the fugitive refused to surrender, soldiers fired warning shots in the air, and a bulldozer began demolishing the house. the army said. A suspicious movement in the house led the troops to fire at the structure, the army said.

Palestinian officials identified the woman killed as Etaf Zalat, 41. They said her two daughters were also wounded in the incident and were being treated in the hospital.

Five fugitives from the West Bank city of Hebron and from Gaza were arrested in the raid, Palestinian police said.

Manal Ghanem, 22, Zalat's daughter who was wounded during the raid, said the militants were not related to the family. Palestinian police initially said the Islamic Jihad fugitive was Zalat's son-in-law. But Ghanem said the family rented the five men an apartment unit in their home, reports the AP.

I.L.