An undercover Israeli military unit has killed a 28-year-old Palestinian man while storming the al-Ahli hospital in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.
An estimated 21 undercover officers - known as the Mustaarabin - shot dead Abdullah al-Shalaldeh before dawn on Thursday morning while raiding the hospital room of the victim’s cousin, Azzam, according to a statement by the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health, Al Jazeera reported.
The Israeli commandos had come to question Azzam, who was in a surgery unit of the hospital awaiting an operation after being shot by an Israeli settler last month, when they shot dead Abdullah.
Azzam, who has been accused of stabbing an Israeli man, was subsequently arrested. Dr Jihad Shawar, director of al-Ahli Hospital, said the Israeli unit entered the facility at about 3am local time. Much of the raid was captured on CCTV cameras and posted online.
The undercover agents were disguised to blend in with the local Palestinian population, including one disguised as a pregnant woman.
“They headed straight towards the surgery ward, where Azzam al-Shalaldeh was being treated,” Shawar said. When Azzam’s cousin Abdullah came out of the bathroom, he was shot multiple times in the head and body.
“They kept the hospital’s medical crew as hostages at gun point. They arrested the patient and took him away, leaving his cousin [to] bleed to death,” Shawar added.
