LAST UPDATE | 30 Jan
ISRAELI UNDERCOVER AGENTS, some disguised as medical staff, raided a West Bank hospital today and shot dead three Palestinian militants.
The raid occured at Ibn Sina Hospital in the northern city of Jenin.
The Israeli military said forces entered the hospital – a major health facility serving Jenin city and its adjacent refugee camp – to target a “Hamas terrorist cell”.
Announcing the killing by Israeli forces of three people inside the hospital, the Palestinian health ministry stressed healthcare facilities are granted special protection under international law.
“The minister of health calls urgently on the United Nations General Assembly, international institutions and human rights organisations to end the daily string of crimes committed by the occupation (Israel) against our people and health centres,” a ministry statement said.
The Palestinian foreign ministry said the “heinous” hospital killings were a “crime against humanity”, in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
Closed-circuit television footage tweeted by the Palestinian ministry and said to be from the hospital shows armed men and women, disguised in medical uniforms or civilian clothes, moving through its corridors.
The video shows the Israeli agents using a baby carrier and a wheelchair as props.
Hospital director Naji Nazzal told AFP that “a group of Israeli forces entered the facility undercover and assassinated the men”. They used weapons fitted with silencers, he said.
Inside the hospital, the AFP photographer reported seeing blood soaked into a mat and a chair, and spattered across a wall.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa has named the three men as Muhammad Jalamnah, Muhammad Ayman Ghazawi and Basel Ayman Ghazawi.
“The operation was carried out at the hospital’s rehabilitation ward where Basel Ghazawi had been undergoing treatment,” the hospital’s director said.
The Ghazawi brothers were claimed as fighters by the Islamic Jihad militant group, while Hamas said Jalamnah was a “commander” in its armed wing.
The Israeli army has charged all three were “terrorists” who were hiding in the hospital.
Jalamnah was involved in “significant terrorist activity” and was known for distributing weapons and ammunition for use in shootings, the army said.
He “planned to carry out a terror attack in the immediate future and used the hospital as a hiding place and therefore was neutralised,” the army said.
Israel’s relentless military offensive has killed at least 26,751 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Weapons were placed on the bodies of the Ghazawi brothers as they were carried through the streets of Jenin in a funeral procession.
Israel, which has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, has stepped up its incursions into Palestinian towns ands cities since the 7 October Hamas attack.
Jenin has been the focus of repeated Israeli raids, in which the army has demolished homes and ripped up streets as well as carrying out air strikes.
In the latest efforts to broker a new truce between Israel and Hamas, CIA chief William Burns met top Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials in Paris on Sunday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called the talks “constructive” but pointed to “significant gaps which the parties will continue to discuss”.
Blinken expressed hope for a deal, telling reporters that “very important, productive work has been done. And there is some real hope going forward”.
Hamas confirmed today that it had received the proposal, saying on its Telegram account that it was “in the process of examining it and delivering its response”.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, whose government helped broker a previous truce in November, voiced hope an initial deal might lead to a permanent ceasefire.
According to him, the current plan included a phased truce that would see women and children hostages released first, with more aid also entering Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose office earlier also called the talks “constructive”, today ruled out releasing “thousands” of Palestinian prisoners as part of any deal to halt fighting in Gaza.
“I would like to make it clear… We will not withdraw the IDF (army) from the Gaza Strip and we will not release thousands of terrorists. None of this will happen,” he said in an address at Eli settlement in the occupied West Bank.
Israel’s top ally the US expressed hope for a deal, with Blinken telling reporters that “very important, productive work has been done”.
Includes reporting by © AFP 2024
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