Israeli soldiers shot and injured a pregnant Palestinian woman in the northern West Bank this morning. Her husband claims he was taking her to hospital to deliver the baby.
Mr Issam Shadeh was taking his wife Shadiya (27) to Nablus hospital from their village of Huwwara at around 1:00 am (11:00 a.m. Irish time) and had passed one Israeli checkpoint when nervous soldiers, on maximum alert since a guerrilla attack last week killed six of their colleagues, opened fire one the car.
Ms Shadeh was hit in the chest but not seriously hurt. When her husband shouted at the Israeli troops that they had shot his wife, they apologised and offered to take her to hospital in Israel.
Shadeh refused and his wife was treated by an army doctor before being ferried in a Palestinian ambulance to Nablus' Rafit hospital, where she was treated. She did not lose her baby, her husband said. He said he was considering suing the Israeli army.