Tel Aviv/Gaza/Ramallah, June 16, (dpa/GNA) – A Palestinian woman was killed on Wednesday after attacking Israeli soldiers east of Jerusalem, according to military sources.
The woman tried to ram soldiers with a car and then got out with a knife in her hand, the army said. The soldiers fired at her.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health subsequently stated that the 29-year-old had been shot at an army checkpoint.
The situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories is tense after Israeli warplanes attacked military facilities of the militant Palestinian organization in the Gaza Strip overnight. It was the first such violence since a ceasefire with Hamas came into effect in May.
The Israeli military tweeted in the early hours of Wednesday that the bombardments were in response to incendiary balloons sent from Gaza into Israeli territory.
Security sources in Gaza said several explosions were heard in the territory. No one was injured but two Hamas military posts sustained heavy damage, they said.
The sources said the incendiary balloons were sent as a Palestinian protest against the announcement of a flag march through Jerusalem.
The controversial march saw some 5,000 Israeli nationalists march through Jerusalem on Tuesday.
The route passed through the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, which Palestinians saw as a provocation.
Two fires that fire brigades say were caused by suspected incendiary balloons from the Gaza Strip left large areas of burnt grass in southern Israel ahead of the march, according to videos.
An 11-day conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip last month ended with a ceasefire brokered by Egypt that came into effect on May 21.
The conflict saw 13 people killed in Israel, according to Israeli authorities, and 255 deaths in Gaza, according to Palestinian accounts.
GNA