Israeli police say a woman with a knife was killed in the West Bank

JERUSALEM – Israeli police said that a Palestinian woman ran in her nose towards the Israeli military checkpoint on Saturday, and a private security guard killed her.

The shooting happened at a Qalandiya checkpoint near Jerusalem, one of the largest on the occupied West Bank. An amateur video posted online shows a woman lying on the ground at a crosswalk. Police identified her as a 28-year-old resident of a West Bank refugee camp.

A fifth Palestinian woman was killed by Israeli security forces in the West Bank this week. On Thursday, three Palestinians, including two members of the Palestinian security forces, were killed during a raid by Israeli secret forces in the city of Jenin. On Friday, soldiers killed a 15-year-old boy during a protest against an expatriate station near the town of Beit.

Starting five years ago, the Palestinians launched a series of knife and car bomb attacks against Israelis in the West Bank and annexed Israel in East Jerusalem. Rights groups claim that Israeli troops often use excessive force against Palestinians.

The violence takes place in the context of the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Talks on establishing a Palestinian state along with Israel have waned for years as Israel’s expansion of settlements on the war-torn country continues. The Palestinians are looking for a state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, the territory that Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East War.