Israel undercover agents kill 3 Palestinians in West Bank hospital

Israeli undercover agents, some disguised as medical staff, raided a West Bank hospital Tuesday and shot dead three Palestinian militants, in the first such operation in eight years.

An AFP photographer saw a bullet hole on a pillow covered in blood following the raid at Ibn Sina Hospital in the northern city of Jenin, 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.

The Palestinian foreign ministry said the "heinous" hospital killings were a "crime against humanity", in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

Closed-circuit television footage tweeted by the Palestinian ministry and said to be from the hospital shows armed men and women, disguised in medical uniforms or civilian clothes, moving through its corridors.

The video shows the Israeli agents 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.

- Palestinians 'hiding' in hospital -

The Ghazawi brothers were claimed as fighters by the Islamic Jihad militant group, while Hamas said Jalamnah was a "commander" in its armed wing.

The Israeli army charged all three were "terrorists" who were hiding in the hospital.

Jalamnah was involved in "significant terrorist activity" and was known for distributing weapons and ammunition for use in shootings, the army said.

It said he had been "inspired" by the October 7 attacks by Hamas militants in Gaza, that resulted in about 1,140 deaths, mostly civilians, in southern Israel, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

he "planned to carry out a terror attack in the immediate future and used the hospital as a hiding place and therefore was neutralised," the army said.

Israel's relentless military offensive has killed at least 26,751 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Weapons were placed on the bodies of the Ghazawi brothers as they were carried through the streets of Jenin in a funeral procession.

Israel, which has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, has stepped up its incursions into Palestinian towns ands cities since October 7.

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.

The last one happened on November 12, 2015, when undercover agents pretending to bring in a pregnant woman raided a hospital in the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

They detained a Palestinian accused of a stabbing and killed his cousin inside Al-Ahli Hospital.

Since the October 7 attacks triggered war between Israel and Hamas, more than 370 people have been killed by Israeli troops and settlers in the West Bank, according to the health ministry in Ramallah.