Palestinian shot dead in home, family accuses Palestinian security forces

JENIN (WEST BANK): A Palestinian woman was shot and killed in her home in the volatile northern West Bank town of Jenin, where the Palestinian Authority is carrying out a rare campaign against militants.

The family of Shatha al-Sabbagh, a 22-year-old journalism student, said she was killed by a sniper with the Palestinian security forces late Saturday while she was with her mother and two small children. They said there were no militants in the area at the time.

A statement from the Palestinian security forces said she was shot by “outlaws” — the term it has been using for local militants who have been battling Israeli forces in recent years. The security forces condemned the shooting and vowed to investigate it.

Separately, a fourth infant has died of hypothermia in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by nearly 15 months of war are huddled in tents along the rainy,

windswept coast.

The Western-backed Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It is deeply unpopular among Palestinians, largely because it cooperates with Israel on security matters, even as Israel accuses it of incitement and of generally turning a blind eye to militancy.

In a statement, the al-Sabbagh family accused the Palestinian security forces of having become “repressive tools that practice terrorism against their own people instead of protecting their dignity and standing up to the (Israeli) occupation.”

The Hamas militant group also blamed the security forces and condemned the shooting. It noted that al-Sabbagh was the sister of one of its fighters who was killed in a battle with Israeli troops last year.

Palestinian security forces launched a rare operation earlier this month in Jenin, which has seen heavy fighting between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces in recent years. The Palestinian Authority says the operation is aimed at restoring law and order, while critics charge it with aiding the occupation.

Violence has flared in the West Bank since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza triggered the war there. At least 835 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since then, according to the Palestinian Authority. Most appear to have been militants killed in clashes with Israeli forces, but the dead also include civilians and participants in violent demonstrations.

In Gaza, 20-day-old Jomaa al-Batran died from hypothermia and his twin brother Ali was hospitalised. Born prematurely, they spent only a day in the nursery, which is overwhelmed by the war. Their father said it was impossible to keep them warm in a tent, with temperatures dropping below 10°C at night. At least three other babies have died from the cold.

The ongoing conflict has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, displaced 90 per cent of Gaza’s population, and worsened the humanitarian crisis amid restricted aid and

widespread hunger.