Key Points
- CCTV footage circulated online appeared to show around a dozen undercover troops.
- Hamas claimed one of the dead in Ibn Sina hospital as its member.
- Benjamin Netanyahu says the country's forces will not withdraw from the Gaza Strip without "total victory".
Undercover Israeli agents, some disguised as medical staff, have raided a West Bank hospital and shot dead three Palestinians the army alleged were Hamas militants, in the first such operation in eight years.
A photographer from the AFP news agency saw a bullet hole on a pillow covered in blood following the Tuesday raid at Ibn Sina Hospital in the northern city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians gathered around the bodies of those killed.
The Israeli military said forces entered the hospital — a major health facility serving Jenin city and its adjacent refugee camp — to target a "Hamas terrorist cell".
Announcing the killing by Israeli forces of three people inside the hospital, the Palestinian health ministry stressed healthcare facilities are granted special protection under international law.
"The minister of health calls urgently on the United Nations General Assembly, international institutions, and human rights organisations to end the daily string of crimes committed by the occupation (Israel) against our people and health centres," a ministry statement said.
Relatives mourn during the funeral of the Ghazawi brothers, killed when undercover Israeli agents raided the Ibn Sina hospital in the city of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank. Source: Getty, AFP / Zain Jaafar
The video — which AFP could not immediately verify — shows them using a baby carrier and a wheelchair as props.
Hospital director Naji Nazzal told AFP that "a group of Israeli forces entered the facility undercover and assassinated the men". They used weapons fitted with silencers, he said.
Inside the hospital, the AFP photographer saw blood soaked into a mat and a chair, and spattered across a wall.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa named the three men as Muhammad Jalamnah, Muhammad Ayman Ghazawi, and Basel Ayman Ghazawi.
"The operation was carried out at the hospital's rehabilitation ward where Basel Ghazawi had been undergoing treatment," the hospital's director said.
The Israeli army charged that Jalamnah was a "terrorist" with the militant group Hamas hiding in the hospital. Two other "terrorists" who were also hiding inside were "neutralised" along with him.
Jalamnah was involved in "significant terrorist activity" and was known for distributing weapons and ammunition for use in shootings, the army added.
It said he had been "inspired" by the .
Mourners carrying the bodies of the two Ghazawi brothers. Source: Getty, AFP / Zain Jaafar
Israel, which has occupied the since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, has stepped up its incursions into Palestinian towns and cities since 7 October.
Jenin has been the focus of repeated Israeli raids, in which the army has demolished homes and ripped up streets as well as carrying out air strikes.
While Palestinians frequently accuse Israeli troops of preventing paramedics from reaching those wounded in incursions, deadly raids inside hospitals are rare.
It comes as Hamas says it is weighing up a new ceasefire proposal in the war with Israel in Gaza but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his forces will not withdraw from the enclave until they had achieved "total victory".
In Gaza itself, clashes between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters in the north of the enclave forced more Palestinian residents to flee to safer areas, and southern parts of the coastal enclave were hit by Israeli air strikes overnight.
Fighting intensified around Gaza's largest hospital still in service, the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which is surrounded by Israeli troops, the World Health Organization said.
The ceasefire proposal followed talks in Paris involving CIA director William Burns, Qatar's prime minister, the chief of Israel's Mossad intelligence service and the head of Egyptian intelligence.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said he was studying the plan and would go to Cairo to discuss it.
He said the priority for the Palestinian militant group was to end the Israeli offensive - now in its fourth month - and secure a full pull-out of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Netanyahu, speaking during a visit to an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, said: "We will not compromise on anything less than total victory."
Israel will achieve all its objectives, he said, adding: "That means eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel."
Until then no Palestinian prisoners will be freed from Israeli jails, Netanyahu said.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Netanyahu's comments "prove he isn't interested in the success of the Paris meeting and doesn't care about (Israeli) prisoners' lives".
Israel has bombarded Gaza since Hamas' 7 October attack in which more than 1,200 people, including an estimated 30 children, were killed and over 200 hostages taken, according to the Israeli government. More than 26,751 people have been killed in Gaza since 7 October, the majority of them women and children, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
The 7 October attack was a significant escalation in the long-standing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
