JENIN: Israeli commandos disguised as medical workers and Muslim women burst into a hospital in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday and killed three suspected Palestinian militants, one of them lying paralyzed in bed, witnesses and authorities said.
The Israeli military said the three were killed in a joint undercover operation by the army, Shin Bet security service and border police in the Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin, one of the most volatile cities in the West Bank.
It identified one of the men as Mohammad Walid Jalamna, a Hamas member who, it said, was planning an attack inspired by the Hamas-led rampage across Gaza’s border into Israel on Oct. 7, and said a pistol had been recovered.
The military said the two others, the brothers Basel Al-Ghazzawi and Mohammad Al-Ghazzawi, belonged to the Jenin Brigade and the armed wing of Islamic Jihad.
The Palestinian health ministry confirmed the deaths and called on the United Nations to guarantee protection for health centers. “The occupation is committing a new massacre inside hospitals,” it said in a statement.
CCTV footage from the hospital showed a group of about 10 people, dressed variously in civilian clothes and medical garb and including three in headscarves and women’s clothing, pacing through a corridor, armed with assault rifles and moving into the hospital.
The hospital’s director, Dr Naji Nazzal said the Israeli team had entered the hospital at around 5:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) and made its way stealthily to the third floor, ringing the bell to enter the ward where the men were sleeping.
“They executed the three men as they slept in the room,” he told Reuters. “They executed them in cold blood by firing bullets directly into their heads in the room where they were being treated.”
Hours later, a bloodied blue hospital pillow pierced by a bullet remained on a bed, while a folding bed nearby was also stained with blood, apparently from a shot to the head.
Nazzal said Basil Ayman Al-Ghazzawi had been receiving treatment since Oct. 25 for a spinal injury which had paralyzed him.
The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad group said the Al-Ghazzawi brothers were members of its armed wing, while Hamas confirmed that Jalamna belonged to its Al-Qassam Brigade.
The Israeli military said the three had been hiding in the hospital and said it was “another example of the cynical use of civilian areas and hospitals as shelters and human shields by terrorist organizations.” Hamas has denied such allegations.
The dramatic operation in the early hours of the morning was the latest in a series of incidents in the West Bank, which has seen an explosion of violence since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and the subsequent invasion of Gaza by Israel.
Jenin, in the northern part of the West Bank, has witnessed some of the biggest clashes, with repeated Israeli attacks on the densely packed Palestinian refugee camp adjoining the city.
Thousands of mourners poured into the streets of the camp during the day as the three men killed in the raid were buried.
Disguised Israeli forces kill 3 suspected Palestinian militants in raid on West Bank hospital
https://arab.news/6hgt3
Disguised Israeli forces kill 3 suspected Palestinian militants in raid on West Bank hospital
- CCTV footage showed a group of about 10 people, dressed variously in civilian clothes and medical garb, pacing through a corridor, armed with assault rifles
Tunisian police arrest member of parliament who mocked president
- Ahmed Saidani mocked the president in a Facebook post, describing him as the “supreme commander of sewage and rainwater drainage”
TUNIS: Tunisian police arrested lawmaker Ahmed Saidani on Wednesday, two of his colleagues said, in what appeared to be part of an escalating crackdown on critics of President Kais Saied.
Saidani has recently become known for his fierce criticism of Saied. On Tuesday, he mocked the president in a Facebook post, describing him as the “supreme commander of sewage and rainwater drainage,” blasting what he said was the absence of any achievements by Saied.
Saidani was elected as a lawmaker at the end of 2022 in a parliamentary election with very low voter turnout, following Saied’s dissolution of the previous parliament and dismissal of the government in 2021.
Saied has since ruled by decree, moves the opposition has described as a coup.
Most opposition leaders, some journalists and critics of Saied, have been imprisoned since he seized control of most powers in 2021.
Activists and human rights groups say Saied has cemented his one-man rule and turned Tunisia into an “open-air prison” in an effort to suppress his opponents. Saied denies being a dictator, saying he is enforcing the law and seeking to “cleanse” the country.
Once a supporter of Saied’s policies against political opponents, Saidani has become a vocal critic in recent months, accusing the president of seeking to monopolize all decision-making while avoiding responsibility, leaving others to bear the blame for problems.
Last week, Saidani also mocked the president for “taking up the hobby of taking photos with the poor and destitute,” sarcastically adding that Saied not only has solutions for Tunisia but claims to have global approaches capable of saving humanity.
Under Tunisian law, lawmakers enjoy parliamentary immunity and cannot be arrested for carrying out their duties, although detention is allowed if they are caught committing a crime.
