1 of 3 | Mourners carry the bodies of two of the three Palestinians killed in an Israeli special forces raid Tuesday amid funeral rites in Jenin in the northern part of the West Bank. Photo by Alaa Badarneh/EPA-EFE
Three Palestinian men were shot dead in an Israeli dawn raid on a West Bank hospital Tuesday by special forces posing as Muslim men and women and medical staff, Palestinian authorities said.
Calling the killings at Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin “assassinations,” the Palestinian Health Ministry in the capital, Ramallah, said in a statement that the men were shot as they slept after the undercover IDF operatives entered the building. Advertisement
CCTV footage circulating online appeared to show about a dozen personnel armed with assault rifles, three in women’s clothing and two dressed as health workers, moving through the corridors of the hospital.
Israel said it had successfully eliminated an armed Hamas cell using the medical center as cover to plan attacks similar to those on Oct. 7 that sparked Israel’s war with Hamas.
The commandos in the joint IDF, Shin Bet and Yamam police counter-terrorism operation went into the hospital at 5:30 a.m. making for a third-floor room where they shot Muhammad Jalamneh and brothers Muhammad and Basel Ghazawi in their beds, the agencies said in a statement.
Jalamneh is alleged to have been communicating with Hamas officials in other countries and had in the past been injured in preparing a car bomb attack. He was also said to have provided weapons to other militants to carry out shootings and was planning “a raid attack inspired by the events of Oct. 7.” Advertisement
The operatives also recovered a handgun during the raid from Jalamneh who was also a spokesperson for Hamas’s military arm in the nearby Jenin refugee camp.
Muhammad Ghazawi had shot at Israeli troops in the West Bank, the military said, while Basel Ghazawi was a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, the Israeli military said.
The military called the incident “another example of the cynical use by terror groups of civilian spaces and hospitals as cover and as human shields,” referencing what Israel alleges is Hamas’ trademark modus operandi in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Health Officials in Gaza said another 114 people had been killed and 249 injured in the 24 hours ending Monday night, warning in a social media post that the figures could rise because a number of victims remained trapped beneath the rubble or lying on roads ambulance crews and civil defense teams were unable to access.
The latest casualties bring the death toll since the outbreak of hostilities sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel to 26,751 with 65,636 injured.
