Palestinian Shot Dead After Stabbing Israeli Officer in Hebron, Police Say

A Palestinian woman was shot dead on Sunday by Israeli forces in Hebron, after stabbing a Border Police officer, according to Israeli authorities.

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified her as Maha Kazem Awad, a 24-year-old resident of the city.

A preliminary investigation found that the officer shot the woman after she stabbed him with a kitchen knife.

The Israeli officer was lightly wounded in the suspected attack near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city.

This follows the fatal shooting of another Palestinian woman in Husan, near Bethlehem, who Israeli forces said approached them in a "suspicious manner" before being fired at.

Ghada Ibrahim Ali Sabateen from Bethlehem, a widowed mother of six, was shot in the lower body after she did not heed to calls to stay back or warning shots fired into the air, according to the Israeli Defense Forces. A search of the body found no weapon on her.

The EU Delegation to the Palestinians condemned the killing of the woman on Twitter, saying they are "horrified by the killing" and added that "Such excessive use of lethal force against an unarmed civilian is unacceptable."

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"Ghada's picture will not open TV newscasts. Lawmakers will not condemn. The government will not promise to bring the criminals to justice," Joint List Chairman Ayman Odeh wrote on Twitter, adding that "only ending the occupation and a just peace will get all citizens, Palestinians and Israelis alike, out of the cycle of horror. RIP."

Tensions between Palestinians and Israeli forces in the West Bank have been on the rise in the past weeks, following a series of terror attacks in which Israeli citizens have been killed since late March.

Israeli forces and Palestinians exchanged fire on Sunday during a raid in the town of Yabad, near Jenin, in the second consecutive day that troops have entered a gun battle with militants in the area, from which three of the assailants who carried out the attacks originate.