01/30/2024 10:06 am (current 01/30/2024 10:10 am)
Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in hospital ©APA/AFP
Israeli special forces killed three Palestinian militants in a hospital in the northern West Bank. The army said the target of the operation on Tuesday night was a member of the terrorist organization Hamas and two other Palestinian extremists with links to Islamic Jihad. The 27-year-old Hamas member was planning an imminent attack. The men were hiding in Ibn Sina Hospital.
Video footage from the hospital in the city of Jenin showed Israeli special forces entering the clinic, some disguised as medical personnel. According to information, the wanted men came from the refugee neighborhood in the city of Jenin, considered a stronghold of Palestinian militants. The wanted man was involved in several attacks on Israeli soldiers and planned an attack “inspired by the October 7 massacre.” He also had ties to the Hamas leadership abroad. The military's information could not initially be independently verified.
According to Palestinian information, one of the men was injured in an Israeli drone attack in October. He has been receiving treatment at the hospital since then. The other two men, one of them his brother, were with him during the Israeli mission. The Palestinian Ministry of Health condemned the attack and called for international protection for medical facilities in the West Bank. Israel accuses Palestinian militant organizations of misusing medical facilities and ambulances for military purposes.
The situation in the West Bank has deteriorated significantly since the massacre of Israelis by Islamic Hamas on October 7, which left around 1,200 people dead, and the subsequent outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. According to the Ministry of Health, 366 Palestinians have been killed since then in the West Bank alone. According to the ministry, 60 people have died in Israeli military operations in the West Bank, in clashes or in the attacks themselves since the beginning of the year.
Israel conquered, among other things, the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the Six-Day War in 1967. The Palestinians claim the areas for their own state, with East Jerusalem as their capital.