Secret Israeli soldiers raid West Bank hospital and kill three terrorists
JENIN, West Bank (AP) — Israeli soldiers disguised as women and medical personnel attacked a hospital in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday and killed three Palestinian militants in an attack that is the worst in the area during the war in Gaza. Reflects the spread of deadly violence. ,
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, Israeli forces opened fire inside Ibn Sina Hospital in the city of Jenin. The ministry condemned the attack and called on the international community to pressure the Israeli military to stop such operations in hospitals. A Center spokesperson said there was no exchange of gunfire, pointing to targeted killing.
The military said the militants were using the hospital as a hiding place and claimed that one of the targets of the attack had provided weapons and ammunition to others for the attack, which reportedly took place on October 7 in southern Israel. I was inspired by the Hamas attack. The army did not present any evidence to support that allegation.
Photos reportedly taken by a hospital security camera were circulated on social networks, showing about half a dozen undercover soldiers, most of them armed, posing as women dressed in Islamic clothing or hospital staff pajamas. Or doctors wearing white coats. A man wearing a surgical mask held a rifle in one hand and a folded wheelchair in the other. Officers were seen searching for a man kneeling against a wall with his hands raised.
Israel has been widely criticized for attacks on hospitals in Gaza, which have served as shelters for displaced people and a vital but endangered lifeline for thousands of Palestinians injured in the war. Have done. Gaza’s health system, already fragile before the war, is collapsing due to the burden of dozens of patients, lack of resources – including fuel and medical supplies blocked by Israeli sanctions – and repeated fighting around and inside hospitals. Is on the verge of.
Israel claims that terrorists use hospitals, especially in Gaza, to hide or to prepare for operations from there. The army has found underground tunnels near hospitals and says it has found weapons and vehicles used in the October 7 attack on hospital premises.
The war began with a Hamas offensive, when hundreds of militants stormed the border, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapping another 250.
The attack, followed by a relentless assault on land, air and sea, killed more than 26,000 people and injured 65,000 in the Gaza Strip, according to the health ministry, which administers Gaza. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures, but says about two-thirds of those killed were women and children.
According to the United Nations, the fighting has caused a humanitarian catastrophe, with 85% of the small coastal region’s population displaced, part of the region destroyed and a quarter of its population plunged into famine. The United Nations has warned that the crisis could soon get worse, as several countries have halted their funding to the main provider of aid to Palestinians in Gaza following Israeli allegations that a dozen of its workers were killed in the October 7 attacks. Had participated in.
Since that day, violence has also increased in the West Bank. Israel has searched for suspected terrorists there and killed more than 380 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Most were killed in clashes with Israeli forces during raids or violent protests.
The Israeli military says it has detained nearly 3,000 Palestinians in the West Bank over the past four months.
The army said Tuesday that it had killed Mohammed Jalamneh, 27, who it said was planning an imminent attack. The army said the other two men killed, brothers Bassel and Mohammad Ghazawi, were hiding in the hospital and were involved in the attacks.
The army said it did not provide details about how the three died. Their statement said Jalamneh was armed with a gun, but made no mention of the shooting.
Hospital spokesman Tawfiq al-Shobaki said there was no gunfire and Israeli forces killed three people in a targeted operation. He said that during the attack the Israelis attacked doctors, nurses and hospital security personnel.
“What happened is an example,” he said. “There was never any murder inside the hospital. There were arrests and attacks, but no killings.”
Bassel Ghazzavi had been a patient in the hospital since October due to hemiplegia, or partial paralysis, he said.
Hamas identified the three men as its members and called the operation a “cowardly murder”.
The incident occurred in Jenin, which has long been a hotbed of armed conflict against Israel and where the internationally backed Palestinian Authority and its forces have little influence. Even before the war began, the city had been the target of frequent Israeli attacks. Israeli actions there and in the overcrowded local refugee camp have caused widespread destruction.
Israel captured the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem as well as the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East War. More than half a million Israelis now live in settlements in the West Bank.
Israel withdrew its troops and residents from Gaza in 2005, but imposed a tight blockade on the territory along with Egypt in 2007 when Hamas violently took control.
Palestinians claim those areas as part of a future independent state, although hopes of achieving this have been diminishing since the war began.
Qatar, Egypt and the United States were trying to reach a new agreement between Israel and Hamas that could lead to a pause in the fighting and the release of dozens of hostages still held in Gaza.
Progress on the agreement still seems far off.
Israel said ceasefire talks on Sunday had been constructive, but “significant differences” remained over any potential agreement.
Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan told reporters in Beirut that talks were still ongoing but the group was pushing for a more permanent ceasefire before releasing more hostages.
Qatar’s prime minister, who has served as a key mediator with Hamas, was more optimistic, saying U.S. and Middle Eastern mediators had agreed to a framework proposal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages pending the armed group’s submission. Had happened. Speaking at the Atlantic Council in Washington, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said negotiators had made “good progress”.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued to battle militants at various locations in Gaza, even in areas where forces have been conducting operations for months.
Israel issued evacuation orders to residents in western Gaza and urged them to move south. The army also said it had in recent days fought battles with militants and carried out airstrikes in other areas of northern Gaza, which was hit hard in the first weeks of the war and where Israel said it had defeated Hamas. Is completely destroyed.
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Liedman reported from Jerusalem.