A 68-year-old Palestinian woman was beaten to death by Israeli soldiers during a raid on her home in the town of Jayyous, in the northern occupied West Bank.
Soldiers stormed the house of Sabriya Shamasneh in the early hours of Tuesday morning, conducting a violent search and interrogation of the family.
Her husband, Walid Shamasneh, told local media that shortly before the raid, his daughter-in-law had approached him in fear, believing there were ‘thieves’ outside. She reported hearing unusual noises and noticed that the front garden gate had been forced open.
Israeli forces then broke down the front door, terrifying the family.
‘The Israeli officer demanded the names of people I did not know. Then they forced us all into a corner of the room while they searched the other bedrooms,’ Walid said.
At one point, Sabriya attempted to move and called out to her son Hassan, fearing he had been arrested. The soldiers responded by beating her violently with the butts of their rifles, throwing her to the ground and shouting at her to be quiet.
The elderly woman’s head struck the wall, causing her to lose consciousness. Her husband panicked, shouting and pleading with the soldiers to help, but they refused.
After the soldiers left, Sabriya’s husband and son rushed her to Darwish Nazzal Governmental Hospital in Qalqilya. A heavy presence of Israeli military vehicles had prevented an ambulance from reaching the scene.
At the hospital, Sabriya was pronounced dead from the injuries she sustained during the raid, leaving her family in deep shock.
The family is awaiting the arrival of Sabriya’s daughter from Jordan before they bid her a final farewell and lay her to rest, as the whole town grieves.
Palestinians are reporting a dramatic escalation in raids on their towns and villages, along with increasingly violent conduct by soldiers during house searches and raids, including assaults on residents.
These incursions have been accompanied by extensive arrest campaigns carried out by Israeli forces in the city in recent weeks, targeting dozens of Palestinians, including women and children.
On Monday, in Qalqiya, several relatives of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, including their mothers, were arrested in what has been widely viewed as an act of intimidation extending even beyond their deaths.
Last month, the Israeli army violently detained 15 women from the city and its surrounding villages, including wives of prisoners and activists.
In November, an elderly woman, Haniya Hanoun, was beaten to death in front of her family by Israeli soldiers after they stormed her home in the village of al-Mazraa al-Gharbiya, north of Ramallah.