Disguised Israeli forces kill 3 Palestinian militants in West Bank hospital

JENIN — Israeli commandos disguised as medical workers and Muslim women burst into a hospital in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday and killed three Palestinian militants, one of them lying paralyzed in bed, witnesses and authorities said.

The Israeli military said the three militants were killed in a joint undercover operation by the army, Shin Bet security service and border police in the Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin, one of the most volatile cities in the West Bank.

It identified one of the men as Mohammad Walid Jalamna, a Hamas member who, it said, was planning an attack inspired by the Hamas-led rampage across Gaza's border into Israel on Oct. 7, and said a pistol had been recovered.

The military said the two others, the brothers Basel al-Ghazzawi and Mohammad al-Ghazzawi, belonged to the Jenin Brigade and the armed wing of Islamic Jihad.

The Palestinian health ministry confirmed the deaths and called on the United Nations to guarantee protection for health centers. "The occupation is committing a new massacre inside hospitals," it said in a statement.

CCTV footage from the hospital showed a group of about 10 people, dressed variously in civilian clothes and medical garb including three in headscarves and women's clothing, pacing through a corridor, armed with assault rifles, and moving into the hospital. The video also shows them using a baby carrier and a wheelchair as props.

The hospital's director, Dr. Naji Nazzal said the Israeli team entered the hospital at around 5.30 a.m. (0330 GMT) and made its way stealthily to the third floor, ringing the bell to enter the ward where the men were sleeping.

"They executed the three men as they slept in the room," he told Reuters. "They executed them in cold blood by firing bullets directly into their heads in the room where they were being treated." They used weapons fitted with silencers, he said.

Hours later, a bloodied blue hospital pillow pierced by a bullet remained on a bed, while a folding bed nearby was also stained with blood, apparently from a shot to the head.

Nazzal said Basil Ayman al-Ghazzawi had been receiving treatment since Oct. 25 for a spinal injury that had paralyzed him.

The Iranian-backed 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 Brigade.

The Israeli military said the three had been hiding in the hospital and said it was "another example of the cynical use of civilian areas and hospitals as shelters and human shields by terrorist organizations." Hamas has denied such allegations.

The dramatic operation in the early hours of the morning was the latest in a series of incidents in the West Bank, which has seen an explosion of violence since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and the subsequent invasion of Gaza by Israel.

Jenin, in the northern part of the West Bank, has witnessed some of the biggest clashes, with repeated Israeli attacks on the densely packed Palestinian refugee camp adjoining the city.

Thousands of mourners poured into the streets of the camp during the day as the three men killed in the raid were buried.

While the Israeli army has besieged, raided and attacked several hospitals in the Gaza Strip, targeted raids such as this one are rare in the West Bank.

The last one happened on Nov. 12, 2015, when undercover agents pretending to bring in a pregnant woman raided a hospital in the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

They detained a Palestinian accused of stabbing and killing his cousin inside al-Ahli Hospital.

Since the Oct. 7 attacks triggered war between Israel and Hamas, more than 370 people have been killed by Israeli troops and settlers in the West Bank, according to the health ministry in Ramallah, according to AFP.