Muhammad Jalamneh (left) and the Ghazawi brothers, Muhammad and Basel, were fatally shot by Israeli special forces at Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin, the West Bank, on January 30, 2024.
An Israeli special forces unit has fatally shot three young Palestinians inside a hospital in the northern West Bank, marking an unusual incident since the onset of the latest round of violence in the occupied territory.
According to Palestinian media sources, individuals from the assault team disguised themselves as medical staff and civilians. They entered the Ibn Sina Hospital in western Jenin at 5:30 a.m. local time (0330 GMT) on Tuesday.
Ascending to the third floor, they used silenced firearms to fatally shoot three young Palestinians before fleeing the premises.
One of the victims had been receiving treatment at the hospital for approximately three months after being injured by the Israeli military.
No visible effort was made to apprehend the Israeli attackers.
The Israeli military later asserted that the three individuals were part of a Hamas-affiliated team planning attacks against Israeli targets.
It claimed that Muhammad Jalamneh, aged 27, had connections with Hamas leadership abroad, provided weapons to other Palestinian militants for attacks, and had previously been injured while preparing a car bomb attack.
According to some Hebrew-language media reports, Jalamneh was also purported to be a spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, in the Jenin refugee camp.
The Israeli military identified the other two individuals as brothers Muhammad and Basel Ghazawi.
Muhammad is reportedly affiliated with the Jenin Battalion and has been linked to attacks targeting Israeli troops, whereas Basel is reportedly associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement.
The Palestinian health ministry responded to the event, accusing Israel of committing "numerous crimes... against medical facilities and personnel" in both Gaza and the West Bank.
The ministry said that the Israeli military was “committing a new massacre inside hospitals.”
“The Minister of Health “Mai al-Kaila” urgently called on the United Nations, international institutions and human rights organizations to put an end to the series of daily crimes committed by the occupation against our people and health centers in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”
Israel has ramped up its violence in the West Bank since its genocidal war on Gaza began in early October.
The Israeli aggression has so far killed at least 26,637 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 65,387 others in Gaza. The Zionist regime of Israel has imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water.
