Pregnant woman among four Palestinians killed following Iranian missile attack

A pregnant woman is the fourth Palestinian to have died from shrapnel wounds sustained after an Iranian missile attack on Wednesday night.

Asil Samir Masalmeh died on Thursday after missile fragments tore through a hair salon in the occupied West Bank town of Beit Awa, near the city of Hebron, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The 32-year-old was six months pregnant. Wafa news agency reported that medical teams recovered the bodies of three other women, including a teenager, from the site. The teams responded to 13 injured women, including Masalmeh.

The injured women were taken to Dura Governmental Hospital and other medical facilities in Hebron, where the pregnant Masalmeh died of her wounds. Another woman is still in a critical condition. 

Local and medical sources identified the three other women killed in the attack as Mais Ghazi Masalmeh, 17, Sahira Rizq Masalmeh, 50, and Amal Sobhi Abdel Karim Matawa Masalmeh, 36.

The four women are the first Palestinians to have died in the US-Israeli war on Iran, which began on 28 February. 

Palestinian authorities could not confirm if the shrapnel that killed them came from an Iranian missile or from an Israeli interceptor used to shoot it down. 

The Israeli military had said it was working to intercept an Iranian missile attack shortly before the strikes.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said there was a “direct impact of missile shrapnel”. A medic told AFP that the projectile was fired from Iran.

Palestinian residents in the occupied West Bank do not have access to fortified shelters, which are common in Israel. 

Palestinians and foreign workers have been repeatedly denied entry to Israeli bomb shelters in the past.

The salon was in a prefabricated metal structure close to a house. Eyewitnesses reported that a bomb or part of a bomb had landed a metre or so away and ricocheted into the salon.