The Palestinian health ministry on Sunday said Israeli security forces killed pregnant 23-year-old woman in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
The heaLth ministry, in a statement said Sundos Jamal Mohammed Shalabi, who was eight months pregnant, was struck by Israeli gunfire, adding that the foetus also did not survive and that Shalabi’s husband was critically injured.
The Palestinian state news agency cited eyewitnesses as saying that Shalabi and her husband were shot by Israeli forces as they were trying to leave their home.
The Israeli military had said it was expanding a counter-terrorism operation in the north of the West Bank to Nur Shams, a refugee camp close to the Palestinian town Tulkarm.
According to officials, Israel’s military, police and intelligence services started the counter-terrorism operation in Jenin on January 21, describing it as a large-scale and significant military operation.
Newspot reports that the operation expanded to Tulkarm, Al Faraa and Tamun, with the military saying it was targeting militants.
Israel, viewing the West Bank as part of a multi-front war against Iranian-backed groups established around its borders, launched the operation after reaching a ceasefire in its war in Gaza against the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
