Palestinian president ‘against’ new Israel govt

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said he would be against a new Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, after elections left him tied with his main challenger and raised the prospect of negotiations to build a unity government.

“Our position: against Netanyahu,” Abbas said during a visit to Oslo when questioned over his preferences for a new Israeli government.

Israeli police said that security guards at a checkpoint near Jerusalem were in “immediate danger” when they shot and killed a Palestinian woman carrying a knife, after a widely circulated video of the shooting raised concerns about excessive force.

The video of the shooting early on Wednesday appears to show a private security guard firing at the woman from several meters (yards) away at the Qalandia checkpoint, just outside Jerusalem.

The woman drops what appears to be a knife before falling to the ground. Three other armed guards move in and one of them kicks the knife away. The woman crawls a short distance before lying motionless.

Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbing attacks against Israeli security forces and civilians in recent years. But human rights groups say Israeli forces often use excessive force, opening fire when suspects could have been disarmed and detained through non-lethal means.

There have also been cases in which distraught Palestinians appear to have deliberately ended their lives by attacking Israelis, a variation of the “suicide by cop” phenomenon.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the woman was armed with a knife and walking in an area reserved for vehicles.

“She shouldn’t have been there in the first place, which shows clearly that she had intentions of carrying out an attack,” he said. The security guards “made a decision at a time when they were in immediate danger and they opened fire according to the danger, the life-threatening situation.” The woman has not been identified. Rosenfeld said she was not carrying an ID, which is required for those passing through the checkpoint on the main road from Ramallah, the city in the occupied West Bank where the Palestinian Authority is headquartered, to Jerusalem.

She was taken to a hospital for treatment and later died of her wounds, police said. In its initial statement after the attack, the police said the woman had been shot in the leg.

Agencies