PALESTINIAN women held a sit-in protest in Bethlehem on Saturday demanding an end to femicide and violence after three people were killed in a brutal attack in the occupied West Bank.

The Association of Women Development Institutions umbrella organisation called the action after the triple murder in which a woman, her husband and sister-in-law were killed in Wadi al-Nar.

According to director of the Women’s Media & Development Centre Suheir Farraj, protesters wanted to highlight a worrying spike in crime and violence: at least 26 women have been murdered since the beginning of the year.