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JERUSALEM, June 24 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian woman who crashed her car into an Israeli vehicle in a possible car-ramming attack in the West Bank was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers on Friday, the Israeli army said.
"Earlier today an assailant accelerated and crashed into a stationary vehicle at the entrance to Kiryat Arba, wounding two civilians," the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said in a statement Friday.
Kiryat Arba is a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, located near Hebron.
The IDF said Israeli soldiers at the site "fired towards the attacker, resulting in her death," believing the incident to be a nationalistic-motivated attack rather than an accident.
The two Israelis were lightly injured and evacuated to the Shaarei Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem, Israeli emergency services stated.
The military is carrying further investigation into the circumstances of the incident.
Israel and the Palestinians have been mired in a wave of violence since October 2015, claiming the lives of 32 Israelis and 205 Palestinians.
Israelis have been killed by Palestinian attackers in car-ramming, stabbing and shooting attacks.
Some of the Palestinians died in clashes with Israeli security forces during protests, while others were gunned down for allegedly carrying out -- or trying to carry out -- attacks against Israelis.
Israeli human-rights organizations, the Palestinians and some members of the international community charge Israel is using excessive force against potential Palestinian attackers.
They claim Israeli soldiers and policemen use excessive force against attackers, even when they do not pose danger, and that in some cases innocent Palestinians have been gunned down by mistake for erroneously being identified as would-be attackers.
Israeli leaders blame the Palestinian Authority over incitement to violence amid the unrest, while the Palestinians charge it is the result of 49 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, home to more than five million Palestinians, where they wish to establish their own state.
