Shatha al-Sabbagh, a 22-year-old journalism student, was shot and killed in her home by Palestinian Authority security forces in the city of Jenin in Samaria on Saturday.
The P.A. is carrying out a campaign against competing terrorist groups in Judea and Samaria, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, that reject its control.
The P.A. wants to assert its authority in order to position itself to take charge of the Gaza Strip after the Iron Sword war ends, the Associated Press reported.
Al-Sabbagh’s family said in a statement that she was killed by a P.A. sniper while she was with her mother and two small children. Her family said there were no terrorists in the area at the time.
The al-Sabbagh family accused the P.A. security forces of being “repressive tools that practice terrorism against their own people instead of protecting their dignity and standing up to the occupation [i.e. Israel].”
The P.A. said in an official statement that she was shot by “outlaws,” the term it uses for local terrorists not under its control. The P.A. security forces condemned the shooting and promised to investigate.
Hamas blamed the P.A. security forces and condemned the shooting. Al-Sabbagh was the sister of a Hamas member killed in a firefight with Israeli troops last year, said the group.
On Sunday, hundreds of people took part in a demonstration in Jenin in support of the P.A. forces. Fatah, the party of P.A. chief Mahmoud Abbas, organized the protest.
