MONITORING (SW) – 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”, according to Al Jazeera.
The military identified one of the men killed as Mohammed Jalamneh, 27, who it said was planning an imminent attack.
The two other men killed, brothers Basel and Mohammed Ghazawi, were hiding inside the hospital and were involved in attacks, the military claimed.
“A gun was found on a wanted person, which was confiscated by the forces,” the army statement added.
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, Al Jazeera reported.
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 that Jalamneh was one of its members, and Basil was with the Jenin Battalion. Mohammed was also a Palestinian fighter.
Palestinian foreign ministry condemned “in the strongest terms the occupation forces’ assassination of the three young men”.
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.
In a video shot by local media, the mother of Mohammed and Basil Ghazawi said that the two brothers were loved by everyone, adding that Basil was getting treatment at the hospital for four months.
Iran says Israel’s hospital raid should ‘alarm’ the world
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani has strongly condemned the deadly Israeli raid on the Ibn Sina Hospital.
“Countries and international organisations are expected to not remain indifferent to this terrorist move and identify this barbaric act – which can create the grounds for normalising organised terrorism – as a warning alarm for the global community and strongly condemn it,” he said in a statement.
Kanani referred to the three killed at the hospital as “injured Palestinians”.
He said it is lamentable that Israel’s backers condemn the “legitimate defences of the Palestinian nation against occupation” while remaining silent as the “genocide machine of the Zionists” moves on.
