Israel police shoot and kill 2 Palestinians with knives

JERUSALEM – Security forces shot and killed two Palestinians on Wednesday, including a woman who brandished a knife near an Israeli checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Israeli police said.

A Palestinian security official identified those killed as a 24-year-old mother of two and her 16-year-old brother, residents of the al-Ram neighbourhood near the Qalandia checkpoint, the West Bank’s busiest.

The incident was the latest in a wave of violence that broke out last September. Since then, 28 Israelis and two Americans have been killed in stabbings and other attacks by Palestinian assailants. Nearly 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. Israel says most had attempted or carried out attacks.

Human rights groups have said Israeli forces or civilians were at times too quick on the trigger, and that lives of suspected assailants could have been spared.

In Wednesday’s incident, police said two Palestinians approached security forces at Qalandiya. When they were ordered to stop, the woman pulled a knife out of her bag and waved it at an officer near her, the police statement said. Forces opened fire, killing both Palestinians.

Police said they found two knives on the second body as well.