It was still night and many patients at Ibn Sina Hospital in the West Bank were still sleeping when the death squad arrived.
Israeli agents disguised as medical staff and patients pulled out rifles, subdued hospital workers and headed to room 376.
He officers shot to death the patient there (he had been wounded months earlier in an Israeli airstrike), as well as his brother and a friend.
Israeli authorities said the three were part of a terrorist cell that had taken refuge in the medical center to plan an attack. Their families buried them wrapped in militant flags.
But Tuesday's raid on the besieged city of Jenin has raised new questions about Israel's war conduct, particularly its willingness to attack civilian medical facilities.
A hospital employee points out bullet holes in the room where disguised Israeli agents killed three patients at the West Bank facility. All three were shot at point-blank range on Tuesday.
(Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)
Legal experts said the hospital attack likely violated international laws governing conduct during war, including one that prohibits combatants from impersonating doctors or other civilians, and another that prohibits killing wounded adversaries. .
They also noted that because Israel may not technically be at war in the West Bank, the killings could be considered extrajudicial killings.
“There are very strong reasons to believe that this constitutes a war crime and perhaps even a crime against humanity,” said Heidi Matthews, an assistant professor at York University's Osgoode Hall School of Law in Toronto.
Since the war began on October 7, when Hamas carried out The worst attack in Israel's history. – killing some 1,200 people, about two-thirds of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities – the United Nations Human Rights Council has identified “clear evidence” of war crimes by both the Israeli military and Hamas.
Israel is already under scrutiny as the International Court of Justice agreed to hear a case alleging it violated the genocide convention in its current attack on the Gaza Strip, where Israel has frequently attacked schools and hospitals in what it says is an attempt to root out Hamas fighters.
Health authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza say nearly 27,000 people have been killed there since Oct. 7, most of them civilians.
Areej Al-Ghazzawi is comforted on Wednesday by the nurse who oversaw the care of her son who died at Ibn Sina hospital.
(Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)
The hospital raid comes amid simmering tensions in the occupied West Bank, where hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by security forces. Both Palestinians and Israelis fear that the fighting in Gaza could spread here.
Many Israeli counterterrorism operations have focused on the Jenin refugee camp, a collection of ruined buildings and narrow streets packed into a hill on the western edge of the city.
The camp was established in 1953 for Palestinians evicted from their homes around the city of Haifa during the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. It now has a population of 22,000 and has become a symbol of the Palestinian defiance.
For decades, Israel has viewed the camp as a base for militants and a launching pad for attacks that have killed Israeli soldiers and civilians.
Since October 7, Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians in raids in Jenin, raiding the camp in armored vehicles and even carrying out airstrikes.
For months, local leaders have complained that soldiers have been illegally attacking civilian infrastructure, including medical centers.
It began with 30-minute searches by ambulances trying to reach hospitals, which delayed their entry into the clash sites to evacuate the wounded. More recently, medical staff say they have sometimes been banned from hospitals.
Israeli soldiers order a paramedic to empty a patient's pants pockets in an alley near Shifa hospital in Jenin in December 2023.
(Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)
“Before, if I was at home and there was a raid, I could drive my car to the hospital, day or night. Now they would shoot me,” said Yasser Kilani, director of the emergency department at Jenin State Hospital. “Not even the ambulance can come pick me up.”
Hospital director Wissam Bakr showed a visiting journalist the doors of the facility, where bullets from nearby clashes had left a series of gouges in the concrete walls. As he walked up the stairs, he pointed out the spot where a sniper bullet pierced a window pane.
Tuesday's raid on a crowded hospital ward was a new escalation.
The raid was presumably the work of Mistaarvim, an Israeli covert unit whose name translates as “those who disguise themselves as Arabs.” Members of the unit look, speak and dress like Arabs to infiltrate protests and carry out assassinations.
The commandos dressed up as doctors, nurses and patients. One was dressed as a woman with a headscarf and holding a bundle that looked like a baby. Another was sitting in a wheelchair. When they reached the third floor, they pulled assault rifles from under their clothing, according to surveillance video. Hospital staff said there was no exchange of gunfire and that the three men in room 376 were shot in the head with silenced pistols.
A day later, there were still blood stains on the ceiling and bullet holes were visible in two beds and a chair. Other evidence of the attacks had been cleared.
Dr. Tawfiq Shobaki, a hospital spokesman, said staff had been treating Basel Ghazawi, 18, since October, when an Israeli airstrike caused a spinal injury that left the lower part of her body paralyzed. .
“He was seriously ill and had a long and complex medical journey ahead of him,” Shobaki said, adding that since Ghazawi needed 24-hour assistance, hospital staff encouraged visitors.
Al-Ghazzawi members are comforted by community members as they mourn the death of their two children.
(Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)
The other two men killed were Ghazawi's brother Mohammed, 23, and a friend, Mohammed Jalamneh, 27. Israel said Jalamneh was planning an imminent attack allegedly inspired by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
The Israeli military said in a statement that the men were using the hospital as a hideout, but did not provide further details.
“For a long time, wanted suspects have hidden in hospitals and used them as a base to plan terrorist activities and carry out terrorist attacks,” he said.
Legal experts said militants inside a hospital planning attacks could be considered legitimate targets.
But under international humanitarian law, it is illegal for a combatant to impersonate a doctor (or any other non-combatant civilian). It is also illegal to kill a combatant who is wounded and incapacitated.
Janina Dill, co-director of Oxford University's Institute of Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, described the hospital raid as “a fairly graphic and significant challenge to international law.”
“Israel is not, contrary to what it claims, fighting by the letter of the law,” he said.
The three men killed in the hospital attack were buried the same day.
The following afternoon, Areej Ghazawi, the brothers' mother, welcomed dozens of mourners into her home. Family members handed out cups of coffee flavored with cardamom and dates wrapped in aluminum foil.
He said his oldest son had been taking care of Basel since he was injured in October.
“They were in the hospital for months,” he said. “My children were supposed to be in a safe place.”
If Israeli authorities had wanted to detain the men, he said, “they could have arrested them. Why were they shot in the head?
A group of women entered: nurses who had been caring for Basel in the hospital. One of them held Areej Ghazawi as he sobbed.
Friends of Basel Al-Ghazzawi and Mohammad Al-Ghazzawi visit and pay respects at their graves after the brothers were shot dead by Israeli agents disguised as medical personnel.
(Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)
“I was sleeping,” he lamented.
The nurse approached her and said: “They will be waiting for you at the entrance to heaven.”
Linthicum reported from Jenin and Bulos from Beirut.
