Undercover Israeli commandos dressed as doctors snuck into a West Bank hospital, killing three men in a ward they claim were Hamas terrorists.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed the clandestine operation on Tuesday after Palestinian media released CCTV video footage, showing a group of people dressed as Muslim doctors, nurses and civilians entering a hospital in Jenin, brandishing assault rifles.
The team of IDF and police counterterrorism commandos entered Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin overnight, killing a man they identified as a member of Hamas, and two other suspects, the Israeli military said.
Mohammed Jalamneh, 27, “had contacts with Hamas headquarters abroad” and was plotting a terrorist attack “in the immediate future”, the IDF said.
Jalamneh was at the hospital to sit with a friend who was convalescing after being wounded in an IDF drone strike on a cemetery in Jenin last year.
The undercover commandos entered the hospital, shot the three men with a silencer and promptly left.
A CCTV video published by Palestinian media showed a dozen people including a person carrying a rifle in one hand and a wheelchair in another, an officer dressed as an elderly Muslim and a woman with an Islamic scarf moving around the hospital’s reception area.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted unnamed hospital employees who said the commandos entered the hospital one by one wearing disguises.
Ten other people were reportedly in the same ward where the raid took place but they were unharmed.
A deputy director of the hospital was quoted as saying Mr Ghazawi has been in and out of the hospital since October when he was injured and suffered from partial paralysis of the lower body.
The IDF claimed Mr Jalamneh transferred weapons and ammunition to “terrorists” to “promote shooting attacks” and reportedly planned a raid attack inspired by the Hamas massacre on Oct 7.
