A Palestinian woman was killed late Friday night after Israeli settlers threw stones at her vehicle near a West Bank checkpoint south of Nablus, according to Palestinian reports.

Aisha Mohammed Rabi, 47, and her husband Yacoub were reportedly driving when a group of settlers threw stones at their car. She was reportedly struck in the head with a stone and died shortly after. He was lightly wounded.

"I don’t have any doubt it was the settlers," Yacoub told Haaretz on Saturday, "there were six or seven of them, and it was clear that they were young. In such a place and time, no young Palestinian would dare stand there. The Za'atara area [in the West Bank] is always surrounded by military force, and so it's clear that the settlers did it."

Open gallery view Aisha Mohammed Rabi. Credit:

When asked if he expected the Israeli authorities to arrest the attackers, he responded: "You ask us this question. They need to know."

Issam, the husband's cousin, told Haaretz that the couple were heading home with two of their daughters after visiting a third daughter in Hebron. Issam said the car was struck by stones thrown from a hill near the Tapuach checkpoint, with one of the stones striking her inside the vehicle. The family was taken to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

The Judea and Samaria District police confirmed they have arrived to the scene shortly after midnight and opened a preliminary investigation into the matter.

Issam told Haaretz that the family had not received any updates as of Saturday morning. "It's as if nothing happened and we did not lose a wife and a mother," Issam said.

Thousands are expected to attend Rabi's funeral in the West Bank town of Biddya, which will take place Saturday afternoon. Shops throughout the town are closed after a strike was declared following her death.

The incident is the latest event in a violent week in the West Bank. On Thursday, two people were wounded in a stabbing attack on Thursday at the entrance to the Samaria regional brigade headquarters in the West Bank. On Sunday, two Israelis were killed at a factory in the Barkan Industrial Zone in the West Bank. The two victims, Ziv Hajbi, 35, and Kim Yehezkel-Levengrond, 29, were layed to rest on Monday and Sunday.

A manhunt remains underway for the assailant, Ashraf Walid Saliman Na'alwa, 23, who gave a coworker a note in which he said he planned to commit suicide and praised late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat prior to the shooting. The note led security forces to conclude that the shooting was a terror attack.