Palestinian woman dies during Israeli raid on West Bank

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Palestinian woman died of injuries sustained on Sunday when she was shoved to the ground by Israeli soldiers conducting an arrest raid in her village in the occupied West Bank, witnesses and a medical official said.

They said Mariam Ayyad, aged around 60, had tried to block the path of troops who came to Abu Dis, near Jerusalem, overnight to detain students lodging in a property she owned.

"She went outside in order to prevent them arresting someone from her house," one of the students, who would only be identified by his nickname, Abu Yaffa, told Reuters. "They knocked her down and there was blood on her head."

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed an operation was under way in the Abu Dis area, saying that as it was still ongoing she could not comment fully on the Palestinian's death.

"The claims about the woman are being checked. Indications are that she did not die as a result of physical contact with our forces," the military spokeswoman said.

Nesrin Jasan, an Abu Dis doctor who examined Ayyad for a medical report, said: "The cause of death was being pushed to the ground and being struck in the head."

The incident looked likely to stoke tensions in the West Bank, where the U.S.-backed Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has mounted a security drive since breaking with Islamist Hamas rivals who routed his forces in the Gaza Strip last year.

Though Abbas has revived peace talks with Israel, officials in his administration have frequently complained that Israeli military actions and support for Jewish settlements in the West Bank undermine their credibility in the eyes of Palestinians.

Israeli troops killed a 14-year-old Palestinian from Asira al-Kabaliya village in the northern West Bank on Saturday, saying he was about to throw a firebomb at them.

Asira al-Kabaliya saw a September 13 rampage by armed Israeli settlers in which three Palestinians were hurt. The settlers said they were responding to a Palestinian attack in which a child from their community was stabbed and a house torched.

(Reporting by Mustafa Abu-Ganeya; writing by Dan Williams; editing by Catherine Evans)