The two Hamas militiamen killed earlier this week by Palestinian Authority policemen in Kalkilya initially used a local woman as a human shield during the seven-hour gun battle before she herself threw a grenade at the policemen, PA security sources said on Wednesday.
The woman, Amal, is the wife of Abdel Nasser al-Basha, the owner of the house where the two Hamas men, Muhammad Samman and Muhammad Yassin, had been hiding.
The sources claimed that an investigation by the PA security forces into Sunday’s bloody standoff showed that the three PA security officers who died were killed by a hand grenade that the woman lobbed at them as they tried to enter the house.
“The Hamas gunmen were hiding behind the woman, who surprised the police officers by throwing a hand grenade at them,” the sources told The Jerusalem Post. “This is not the first time that Hamas has used women or children as human shields.”