Undercover Israeli authorities shot and killed a Palestinian man inside a West Bank hospital Thursday, the Palestinian health minister said.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that members of the military, the Israel Securities Authority and the Israeli police conducted a joint operation overnight at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron to arrest a man they said was involved in an attack October 25 in the Jewish settlement of Gush Etzion, in the West Bank.
The suspect, Azam Shalaldeh, was being treated at the hospital for injuries sustained in the raid, the IDF reported. The Israeli military said Shalaldeh’s relatives were Hamas operatives.
While the arrest process was taking place, one of Shalaldeh’s family members attacked Israeli authorities and was shot, according to the Israel Securities Authority, which is also known as Shin Beit.
The chief spokesman of the hospital in Hebron, Abdallah Salam Abu Khalaf, told CNN that the joint Israeli undercover unit involved in the operation was made up of 21 people.
“It should be emphasized that the security system will not allow the existence of places of refuge for terror activists wherever they are,” Shin Beit said in its statement.
Palestinian officials, however, expressed outrage over the killing of the man Health Minister Jawad Awad identified as 27-year-old Abdallah Shalaldeh.
The Palestinian foreign affairs ministry called the raiding of hospitals, opening fire on unarmed Palestinian citizens and detaining medical workers a violation of international law.
“The arrest of a Palestinian injured patient who is receiving a medical treatment and kidnapping him to an unknown location also is a grave violation to the international law and the human rights law,” the ministry added.
This Israeli action takes place against a backdrop of stabbing and other attacks on Israeli citizens in recent weeks. These attacks — which have taken place in Jerusalem, around Jewish settlements in the West Bank and elsewhere — have spawned insecurity among ordinary Israeli citizens and strong responses by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.