Protesters ask crackdown on honor killings

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BETHLEHEM, West Bank, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- Women and human rights groups are demanding tougher action by Palestinian authorities after the so-called honor killings of four women by family members.

Several placard-carrying women marched through the streets of Bethlehem Thursday in the latest of a series of protests demanding stricter enforcement of domestic abuse laws, the Los Angeles Times reported.

A 28-year-old woman was stabbed multiple times Monday on a busy street in the city as passersby watched. Her 33-year-old husband has been arrested and may face murder charges. Activists said the man had beaten his wife several times before, sometimes so severely she had been hospitalized, but had never been charged. Authorities only required him to stop beating his wife.

The slaying follows several high-profile incidents this year in which women were allegedly killed by relatives for besmirching their families' reputations.

Such killings resulted in the deaths of 29 women in the West Bank by family members between 2007 and 2010, Palestinian human rights groups said.