Palestinian Woman Killed After Approaching Israeli Guards With a Knife Apparently Had a Note on Her: 'I Am Doing This With a Clear Head

A Palestinian woman killed as she was approaching Israeli security guards while holding a knife Monday said in an apparent suicide note that she was carrying out her violent act “with a clear head.”

The woman, identified by Palestinians as Rasha Awissi, 23, of the West Bank city of Qalqilya, approached the Eliyahu crossing point into Israel holding a knife, the Israeli Defense Ministry said.

This is the knife the female Palestinian terrorist carried when she tried to stab the guards at the Eliyahu crossing pic.twitter.com/E44G53wCJ0

— Ofir Gendelman (@ofirgendelman) November 9, 2015

“The guards called her to stop, and when she didn’t stop they shot and neutralized the threat,” the Defense Ministry said via Twitter.

According to the Defense Ministry, the guards had first fired a warning shot in the air to try to get her to stop her approach.

The Defense Ministry released this close-up of handwritten note that was reportedly found on a woman who attempted to carry out a stabbing attack on Israeli security guards. (Defense Ministry)

The Defense Ministry released images of the knife she was carrying and the suicide note found on her.

"I don't know what will happen to me in the end. I am doing this with a clear head. To defend the homeland and the youth," the letter said, as translated by the Jerusalem Post.

"I cannot stand what I am seeing and I cannot suffer anymore,” she wrote.

Her note revealed that she was engaged to be married.



"To my parents and siblings forgive me for what I am going to do. I love you. Especially my fiancee. I am sorry for whatever will happen to me and that this is the way that I am ending," read the note, according to the Post.

The Times of Israel, quoting the Defense Ministry, pointed out that the suspect arrived on foot, though the crossing is primarily used by cars.

Israeli soldiers clear a road after a Palestinian woman was shot dead after she drew a knife at a check point near the West Bank Palestinian town of Qalqilya, Monday, Nov. 9, 2015. Defense Ministry spokeswoman Arielle Heffez says the woman ignored warning shots and calls to stop as she approached the post. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Despite the glorification of stabbing attacks in Palestinian social media, a conspiracy theory has also been circulating among Palestinians that Israel “plants” knives on stabbing assailants who are killed while carrying out their attacks.

This has prompted Israeli officials to circulate evidence of the stabbing intent in an effort to counter the conspiratorial claims.

On Sunday, security cameras captured the moment another Palestinian woman quietly pulled a knife from her purse while a security guard outside the community of Beitar Illit examined her identity card. When the guard wasn’t looking, she nonchalantly pulled the knife from her back and lunged at the guard.

The guard responded by pulling his gun and shooting her. She sustained moderate wounds and was treated at an Israeli hospital, Israeli media reported.

Two other Palestinian attacks on Sunday included a second stabbing attack and a car-ramming assault on pedestrians.