Four-year-old Palestinian girl among three dead at West Bank checkpoint shooting

Three Palestinians, including a four-year-old girl and a woman, were shot dead by Israeli soldiers on Sunday at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, according to the Arabs48 news website.

Eyewitnesses said that Israeli security personnel opened fire on two vehicles as they passed through the Beit Iksa checkpoint, north of Jerusalem, wounding a man and a woman in the same vehicle, reported Arabs48.

Israeli media confirmed that they had died of their wounds.

A child who was in the other vehicle was also shot and died of her injuries, according to Israeli ambulance staff.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa, quoting local sources, named the four-year-old as Ruqaya Ahmed Odeh Abu Dahuk Jahalin and the man as Muhammad Mazid Abu Eid from the town of Bedouin. The dead woman had not yet been identified.

According to Arabs48, the Israeli military closed the checkpoint following the incident, preventing Palestinian ambulances from reaching the injured.

Israeli police claimed that the first car had attempted to ram the checkpoint and that the young girl in the other vehicle had been “accidentally” shot during their response.