This article originally appeared on The Media Line.
On Saturday, seventeen-year-old Bayan Essiely left her home in the village of Wadi Algrouf near both the Jewish community of Kiryat Arba and the Palestinian city of Hebron. She never came home.
“My daughter was killed,” Ayman Esseily, Bayan’s father told The Media Line. “They say she tried to stab a soldier but none of the knives in our kitchen is missing. I don’t believe that she tried to stab a soldier.”
He said that because his house is very close to the Jewish community of Kiryat Arba, he, his wife and eight children need to pass through the Israeli army post several times a day – to go to school, to go shopping, or to go to work. Like most women in Hebron, Bayan wore a jiljab, a long garment that covers the entire body and head, along with Islamic modesty.
“My daughter Bayan speaks English very well and she is brilliant at school,” he said. “She was preparing for the tawjehi (the final examinations in high school). She wanted to be a dentist.”
He added that there were no shouts or screams at the checkpoint and there were no eyewitnesses to the alleged attack on the Israeli soldier.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenthal offered a very different account of the event.
“The female terrorist approached the female border police officer and attempted to stab her at close range,” Rosenfeld told The Media Line. “The border policewoman responded at the scene and she shot the terrorist who was taken to the hospital in serious condition.” He confirmed that Essiely later died of her wounds.
When asked about the family’s version of the incident, Rosenfeld said, “You can believe whatever you want. The Israeli police respond to different scenarios. The response of the Israeli police has been proportional against the wave of attacks that has taken place.”
Another incident, also involving a female attacker, this time in the northern Israeli city of Afula, has also been contested by Palestinians. Palestinians charge that the woman brandished a knife and was shot before she could attack a female soldier. Palestinians say that she did not pose a threat, and charge that Israeli soldiers planted a knife next to her body using grainy video footage they say proves their scene.
Police spokesman Rosenfeld said the woman posed a threat.
“When police arrived at the scene, she did not put down the knife for 20-30 seconds,” he said. “They called upon her time and time againt to put it down. She shouted “allahu akbar” and when a police officer approached her to remove the knife she waved it in his direction.”
Rosenfeld said the attacker was shot in the legs and taken to an Israeli hospital. He said that of the 34 Palestinians who have killed eight Israelis in the past month, four of the attackers were women.
Some Palestinian analysts said the fact that women are participating in the current violence shows their equality in Palestinian society.
“They are equal with men and they are heroes,” Nashat Aqtash, a professor of communications at Birzeit University told The Media Line. “They are victims of the occupation. Even the boys who are throwing stones are victims because there is no law that allows a soldier to shoot someone who is throwing stones.”
But other Palestinian analysts said there is a special sensitivity in Palestinian society when Israeli soldiers kill young women. In the current case, all four of the women attackers have been teenagers.
“If you are a Palestinian woman wearing a veil or covering her face, you can expect to be killed by Israeli forces at any time, even if you are an Israeli citizen,” Bassem Azizi, a professor of psychology at Birzeit University told The Media Line. “The reasons for the killing are not important. It is enough to be Palestinian.”
Israeli officials say that if the Palestinians do not attack Israeli police and civilians, there will be no reason for them to open fire.
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