QALANDIA, Palestine: Israeli police shot dead a Palestinian woman and her teenage brother on Wednesday, claiming they were armed with knives and tried to carry out an attack at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank.

In the last half year, Israeli forces have killed at least 193 Palestinians, 130 of whom Israel says were assailants. Many others were shot dead in clashes and protests.

Police said the woman, holding a knife, and a man walked rapidly toward police and other Israeli security guards in a vehicles-only lane at the Qalandia checkpoint outside Jerusalem.

“Police called on them several times to stop. When they kept advancing... the officers neutralized the terrorists,” a police statement said.

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the two dead as Maram Abu Ismail, 23, and her 16-year-old brother, Ibrahim Taha.

Alaa Soboh, a Palestinian bus driver who said he witnessed the incident, told Reuters the pair appeared to be unfamiliar with crossing procedures and were swiftly challenged at the checkpoint.

“As soon as the two crossed, (Israeli forces) started screaming ‘Go back, go back’, and then they began shooting. The first one they shot was the girl... the boy tried to go backward, when they fired seven bullets at him,” Soboh said.

Factors behind the bloodshed that began in October include Palestinian bitterness over stalled statehood negotiations and the growth of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, stepped up Jewish access to a disputed Jerusalem shrine, and calls for Israel’s destruction.