Rise in killings of Palestinian women by relatives
RAMALLAH - Palestinian government figures show that the number of women in the West Bank and Gaza killed by relatives, including over "family honor," has doubled within a year, to 26 in 2013.
Women's activists urged Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to end lenience for perpetrators. Abbas suspended one article in the penal code in 2011, but other provisions allowing light punishment of men who kill female relatives remain on the books. At most, perpetrators receive a few years in prison. (AP)
