Palestinian woman killed by Israeli troops
Middle East Desk Report

JERUSALEM—A Palestinian woman brandishing a knife stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday before other soldiers shot and killed her, the army said.
The attack came as Israel beefed up security throughout its towns and cities to prevent attacks during Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, which began Monday night. Israeli troops also barred Palestinians from entering Israel from the West Bank and Gaza during the holiday.
Also Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said the Hamas militant group was setting itself up as a shadow government to the Palestinian Authority and needed to be dismantled. Mofaz demanded that the Palestinian Authority disqualify Hamas from running in parliamentary elections scheduled for January.
“We cannot under any circumstances, not us or any other country, support a move where a terror organization is a part of the Palestinian Authority,” he told Israel Radio. Israel has demanded Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas dismantle Palestinian militant groups. Abbas has refused, fearing a crackdown could spark a civil war. Hamas gunmen and Palestinian police engaged in a series of gunbattles across Gaza City on Sunday that killed three people, including a police officer, and increased fears Gaza was devolving into chaos following Israel’s withdrawal last month.
Abbas has tried to bring some order to Gaza by ordering a ban on carrying weapons in public, but Hamas has become increasingly brazen in its defiance of the Palestinian Authority. Abbas said Monday that the authority would not tolerate the chaos and would “use all means to prevent the public display of arms.” However, Palestinian security officials say police are no match for the armed groups.
Mofaz described the Palestinian fighting as an isolated incident that did not signal a crackdown on militant groups. “I unfortunately don’t see the Palestinian Authority taking any serious steps to disarm the terror organizations,” he said. Mofaz accused Syria of encouraging Palestinian militant attacks against Israel. He predicted that the United States, angry over the infiltration of militants into Iraq through Syria and allegations that Syria was behind the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, could try to force Syrian President Bashar Assad from power. In the attack Tuesday morning, a Palestinian woman wearing a long Islamic dress approached the Hawara checkpoint outside Nablus and pulled a long knife out of her handbag, said Muad Abu Siadi, a Palestinian man who witnessed the attack.