Israeli police shoot Palestinian woman at checkpoint

A Palestinian woman was shot and wounded Friday after approaching an Israeli security checkpoint near Jerusalem with a knife, Israeli police said.

The woman approached the crossing point in Qalandia, between Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, in a lane designated for vehicles despite repeated calls from guards to stop, a statement said. 

She was wounded when security forces opened fire, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

Police said she was 35 and from Issawiya, a neighbourhood in east Jerusalem - local sources named her as Jihan Mohammed Hashima.

She was left on the ground for around an hour after the attack before receiving treatment, an AFP photographer at the checkpoint said.

Footage emerged that appeared to show the woman lying on the ground with her arms in the air just after she was shot before being wheeled into an ambulance.

Translation: The moment when occupation forces opened fire on Jihan Mohammed Hashima (35) at Qalandia checkpoint in the north of occupied Jerusalem this morning

A spokeswoman for the Israeli hospital she was taken to described her condition as "serious".

Israel public radio said forces checked her for explosives before allowing her to be transported to hospital.

The latest violence came a day after a local Israeli committee in Jerusalem approved the building of a three-storey settlement bloc in East Jerusalem, amid a wave of international criticism of settlement building.

Since October 2015, 246 Palestinians, 36 Israelis, two Americans, a Jordanian, an Eritrean and a Sudanese national have been killed in a wave of violence, according to an AFP count.

Most of the Palestinians killed were allegedly carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

Others were shot dead during protests or clashes, while some died in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.