THE Palestinian Authority accused Israel yesterday of shooting a 16-year-old girl “in cold blood” in Jerusalem on Sunday.

Fatima Hajiji from Qarawat Bani Zaid village died after Israeli police and border guards shot her more than 20 times at the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City.

They later claimed she attacked them with a knife. None of the occupation forces were injured.

The police said that Ms Hajiji “approached Israeli police and border guards stationed at the site, drew a knife, and tried to attack them while calling out ‘Allah akbar’ in an attempt to hurt Israeli forces, who determinedly and professionally neutralised her.”

But an eyewitness told the Palestinian Ma’an news agency that she was standing more 10 metres away from a group of border guards when they shot her.

“One of the soldiers started to shout: ‘Knife! knife!’ and moments after that, about five soldiers opened fire at her from every direction,” the witness said.

Another witness said Ms Hajiji fell after being hit in the chest “but Israeli soldiers continued to fire at her back.”

Photos showed a parked car hit several times in the hail of gunfire.

Israeli security forces moved quickly to cordon off the area, calling in mounted police and using pepper spray to keep locals from approaching the bloody scene.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the killing in a statement.

It highlighted the hypocrisy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who in a meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday lauded “the ‘ethics’ of the occupation soldiers.”

“The ‘ethics’ which Netanyahu boasts emerged quickly… when the occupation forces executed the child Hajiji in cold blood,” the ministry said.

Relatives of the 18-month-old toddler burnt to death by Israeli settler extremists in July 2015 have launched a lawsuit against the Israeli government for inciting the infamous murder.

Ali Dawabsheh, his father Saad and mother Riham died in the pre-dawn firebomb attack on their home in Duma. His brother Ahmad survived with severe burns to 60 per cent of his body.

Saad Dawabsheh’s brother Nasser Dawabsheh brought the case, arguing that Israel has a duty to protect those under its occupation.

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, last month that Ahmad was not entitled to compensation.