Hospital says the men were ‘assassinated’. Israel says they belonged to a Hamas ‘terrorist cell’.
Israeli forces have shot dead three Palestinians inside a hospital in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
The killings were carried out by undercover operatives while the men were sleeping at the Ibn Sina Hospital, according to statements issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the Israeli army on Tuesday.
“This morning three young men were martyred by the bullets of the occupation [Israeli] forces who stormed the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin and shot them,” the Health Ministry in Ramallah said.
The Israeli army said its troops had “neutralised” the men, who were hiding in the hospital and belonged to a Hamas “terrorist cell”.
“A gun was found on a wanted person, which was confiscated by the forces,” the army statement added.
It reported that one of the men “had recently been involved in promoting significant terrorist activity and was hiding” in the hospital.
Hospital director Naji Nazzal told the AFP news agency that “a group of Israeli forces entered the facility undercover and assassinated the men”.
They used weapons fitted with silencers, he added.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa named the three men as Muhammad Jalamnah, Muhammad Ayman Ghazawi and Basel Ayman Ghazawi.
Security camera footage circulated online appeared to show about a dozen undercover personnel, including three in women’s clothing and two dressed as medical staff, pacing through a corridor of the hospital with assault rifles.
Hamas said in a statement that the Israeli army’s “crimes will not go unanswered,” adding that the killings are a “continuation of the occupation’s ongoing crimes against our people from Gaza to Jenin”.
The statement said that one of the men was injured and in bed when he was killed.
Of the three men, Hamas confirmed one was one of its members, and another was with the Battalion genes. The third was also a Palestinian fighter.
The funeral ceremony of the three men was under way at noon, as crowds passed through the streets of Jenin in preparation for performing funeral prayers for them to be buried later in the cemetery in the Jenin refugee camp. Palestinian media outlets published scenes from the funeral.
‘Undercover assassins’
Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, said, according to the medical staff, one of the three Palestinians killed in the hospital was being treated for an injury received during a previous army raid months ago.
“This is the first time since the beginning of the war on Gaza that we’ve seen an Israeli army operation like this inside a civilian medical institution,” he said.
“The Israeli military will surround hospitals and have sometimes been accused of attacking medical facilities from a distance,” our correspondent also said.
He added: “One can only imagine the terror of the patients and staff at the hospital in Jenin. It’s just another example of how determined the Israeli army is to keep up raids as it targets armed resistance fighters across the occupied Palestinian territory.”
Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, said that assailants were dressed as doctors, nurses, and even civilians.
“This unit comprised Israeli police and army personnel. They went up to the third floor of the hospital and shot three young Palestinians dead,” he said.
“It does not look like there was any attempt to arrest these men. They were killed as they were sleeping,” our correspondent added.
Violent clashes were reported in the area surrounding the hospital.
Since the beginning of Israel’s war on GazaIsraeli forces have carried out raids and arrests in the West Bank on a daily basis.
Hundreds of people have been killed and arrested since Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel, in which about 1,140 people were killed and some 250 taken captive.
Approximately 100 of the captives were returned to Israel under a truce deal last November in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
At least 26,637 people have been killed and 65,387 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza.
