Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian woman yesterday near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, the Palestinian health ministry said, the latest in a surge of violence. The ministry said the woman, aged in her 40s, died in a hospital in the West Bank city of Beit Jala after suffering massive blood loss from a torn artery. She was identified as Ghada Ibrahim Sabatien, a widowed mother of six, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. The Israeli army said troops fired warning shots into the air when the woman approached them near the town of Husan, before they "fired towards the suspect's lower body". The woman was transferred to the Red Crescent for treatment, the army said, adding it was investigating the incident, which comes amid heightened tensions in Israel and the West Bank.