The Israeli military said three militants were killed in a joint covert operation by the army, the Shin Bet security agency and border police at the Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin, one of the most volatile cities in the West Bank.
Israeli troops raid a hospital in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on January 30, 2024. Security camera screenshot.
The Israeli military identified one of the men as Mohammad Walid Jalamna, a Hamas member who was planning an attack inspired by Hamas’ October 7 massacre in Israeli territory. The Israeli military said a pistol was recovered.
The other two, brothers Basel Al-Ghazzawi and Mohammad Al-Ghazzawi, belonged to the Jenin Brigade of the Islamic Jihad group, the Israeli military added.
The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the deaths and called on the United Nations to take action to protect medical centers. “The occupation forces are carrying out a new massacre inside hospitals,” the ministry said in a statement.
Video from a hospital security camera shows a group of about 10 people, dressed in a variety of civilian and medical clothing, including three wearing headscarves and women's clothing, walking through a hallway armed with assault rifles.
Video of the raid (source: YouTube/Guardian)
X [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHQXj-PYlm4[/embed]
“We don’t want to turn the hospital into a battlefield, with patients on the right, doctors and nurses on the left, and terrorists in the middle,” Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi told troops near Gaza.
“But we are even more determined not to allow hospitals in Gaza, Judea, Samaria and Lebanon, above ground or in tunnels, to become cover for terrorism,” he added.
Hospital director Dr Naji Nazzal said the Israeli team entered the hospital at around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday and secretly went to the third floor, ringing a bell to enter the room where the men were sleeping.
Hours later, a blood-soaked blue hospital pillow riddled with bullets was still on the bed, while a nearby folding bed was also covered in blood. Nazzal said Basil Ayman Al-Ghazzawi had been treated since October 25 for a spinal injury that left him paralyzed.
The Islamic Jihad militant group said the Al-Ghazzawi brothers were members of its armed wing, while Hamas confirmed that Jalamna belonged to its Al Qassam Brigades.
The dramatic raid was the latest in a series of incidents in the West Bank, which has seen an uptick in violence since an October 7 attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas and a subsequent Israeli retaliatory attack on Gaza.
Jenin, a city in the northern West Bank, has seen some of the biggest clashes, with repeated Israeli attacks on densely populated Palestinian neighborhoods.
Hoang Anh (according to Reuters)
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