At approximately 7:00 pm on Thursday 22 March 2012, a woman (Kh.
Kh.
) was admitted to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in critical condition.
 Medical tests indicated that she had swallowed herbicide.
 Al Mezan was not able to verify the conditions under which she swallowed the substance.
 Her case was registered at the hospital as an attempted suicide, and she was admitted to the intensive care unit for treatment.
  At approximately 1:30 am on Friday 23 March 2012, one of the patient’s relatives arrived at the hospital asking about her condition.
 A doctor informed him that her condition was stable and that she was recovering.
 At that point, the relative drew a handgun and began threatening the doctor and a nurse.
 He then approached the patient and opened fire.
 As a result, she sustained a bullet wound to the head and passed away.
 It is worth noting that the victim was married and had a child of one-and-a-half years.
 According to Al Mezan’s field investigations, the shooter and one of the victim’s brothers surrendered themselves directly after the incident to the police.
 Al Mezan believes this was a case of “honor killing,” meaning murder of women to “preserve family honor.
”   The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights strongly condemns the entry of armed men into a hospital and the killing that followed.
 It also condemns generally killings in which perpetrators allege that they were acting on grounds of “family honor,” the victims of which are almost always women.
  Al Mezan expresses its concern that the killer is claiming he committed the crime to preserve “family honor” in order to escape judicial punishment.
 Al Mezan calls on the authorities to treat all killings of women as murder and not to look for extenuating circumstances outside the law.
 It also calls for protection of hospitals and for the taking of measures to prevent armed men from entering them and committing crimes.
  End