Jewish settlers kill Palestinian woman in occupied West Bank

RAMALLAH - A Palestinian woman has died of her wounds after Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank threw stones at the car she was travelling in, Palestinian official media reported Saturday.

Israeli police confirmed a car had been hit by stones but did not identify the perpetrators. 

Israeli Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said: "Police arrived in the area and have opened an investigation into the circumstances behind the incident reported." He did not give further details.

Witnesses said the car bore Palestinian licence plates, and footage showed what appeared to be a blood-stained broken brick at the foot of the passenger seat, which was covered in shattered glass and blood stains.

Palestinian official news agency Wafa identified the dead woman as 48-year-old mother of eight, Aisha Mohammed Rabi.

She died in hospital in the northern West Bank city of Nablus from a head injury she sustained in the stonethrowing south of the city, Wafa said.

A source at the hospital said the 47-year-old was dead on arrival. Her relatives said an autopsy was to be carried out at another hospital.

Her husband, who was driving the car at the time, escaped with minor injuries, Wafa said. 

The husband, Aykube al-Rawbi, 52, said he was driving by a settlement late on Friday after dark along a main road near the Palestinian city of Nablus and that he could not clearly see who pelted the car.

"The stones came from the side where the settlement is. I could hear the people speak Hebrew, but I didn't see them," said al-Rawbi.

Palestinian witnesses cited by the news agency said the stones were thrown by Israeli settlers.

There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials.

Tensions have been running high in the West Bank over the past week. 

On Friday, Gaza health officials said Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians in protests along Gaza's border. Israel said its troops had shot a group who broke through the fence with a bomb and attacked an army post.

Also on Friday, Israeli forces said they had arrested a Palestinian on suspicion of stabbing and wounding an army reservist on guard duty at a checkpoint south of Nablus the previous day.

On Sunday, a Palestinian gunman shot dead two Israeli work colleagues and wounded a third in an industrial park next to an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli security forces have identified him as Ashraf Naalwa, 23.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in 2014 and a bid by US President Donald Trump to restart them has shown little progress so far.

The Palestinians want to establish an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem -- territories that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Settlements Israel has built in the West Bank, where Palestinians have limited self-rule, are deemed illegal by most countries. Israel disputes this.