HEBRON // Israeli undercover troops posing as Palestinians, one of them disguised as a pregnant woman, raided a hospital in the West Bank city of Hebron yesterday, shooting dead the cousin of the man they came to arrest.
Using a wheelchair for the soldier pretending to be pregnant, four or five soldiers entered the Al Ahli hospital’s surgery ward at about 2.30am before pulling out their weapons and being joined by about 10 to 14 other undercover soldiers, said a nurse who witnessed the incident.
As some soldiers guarded the four nurses on duty, others headed straight for the room in which the wanted man, Azzam Al Shalaldeh, 20, was being treated.
“They put us up against the wall, asking us to lift our hands up,” said the nurse, who asked to be identified only by the initials SZ for fear of Israeli retaliation.
“They threatened us that if we put our hands down we’d be shot.”
After entering Mr Al Shalaldeh’s room, the soldiers then shot dead a Palestinian man who was identified by medical officials as 27-year-old Abdullah Al Shalaldeh, Azzam’s cousin.
“We heard shots. I didn’t know if they were shooting in the air or if they had shot someone,” said SZ, who remained outside Mr Al Shalaldeh’s room.
“They took Azzam and put him on the wheelchair, plastered his mouth and put a black mask on his face,” the nurse said.
After the soldiers left with Azzam, “I went into the room and saw two people: one, who was Azzam’s brother, was chained to the bed and was screaming. The other person was lying on the floor in his own blood. He had been shot in the head, the upper abdomen and the hand. I saw him on the floor gasping. We called the doctors,” said SZ.
Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet, said Abdullah had “attacked the force”.
But Kifah Al Sharif, a member of the hospital’s board of directors, and hospital staffers said he was shot for no reason when he emerged from a bathroom.
“The man is in a hospital, he’s not planning to attack soldiers,” said Mr Al Sharif.
The Shin Bet said its agents had arrested Azzam. It said Azzam had “been smuggled” to the hospital for treatment after he was shot while stabbing an Israeli settler on October 25 near the Meitzar settlement in the Hebron area.
However, Kayed Jaradat, the mayor of Seir village where Azzam is from, eight kilometres north-east of Hebron, said the 20-year-old did not carry out a stabbing attack, but was shot and wounded by a settler while picking olives with his family.
Rafiq Al Salhab, the surgeon who operated on Azzam, said his patient had arrived in critical condition from multiple gunshot wounds but had been “stable” in recent days.
However, he said Azzam needed to remain in hospital as “some wounds were still in the healing phase”.
Hebron’s deputy governor, Marwan Sultan, condemned the Israeli troops for invading “Area A”, territory in the West Bank that is supposed to be under full Palestinian security control and where Al Ahli hospital is located.
"Even in wars the wounded can receive treatment and this should be respected. This should be a safe place. How can I convince people there is an authority here that can protect them?'' he told The National.
He said the raid could fuel more violence.
“The family of the person killed here may respond. Why wouldn’t they? It’s an execution in cold blood,” he added.
Abdullah, Azzam’s cousin, was the 80th Palestinian to be killed since October 1 in the latest wave of violence to hit the region, according to the Palestinian Maan news agency. Twelve Israelis have been killed.
Israeli authorities say 50 of the Palestinian fatalities were involved in attacks on Israelis but Palestinians dispute this.
On Thursday, Israel’s supreme court gave a green light to the destruction of five homes belonging to Palestinians accused of taking part in deadly attacks against Israelis.
Three of the homes are in the West Bank town of Nablus, and belong to the alleged killers of a Jewish settler couple shot dead in front of their children on October 1.
The two other West Bank homes, near Ramallah and in the Qalandiya refugee camp, have been linked to murders dating back to June.
Meanwhile in Hebron, angry doctors and nurses, along with Palestinian Authority officials, demonstrated outside Al Ahli hospital on Thursday morning against the raid.
“To come and kill someone in a hospital is unbelievable,” said Mr Al Sharif, the hospital’s board member. “This means you are not safe in hospital. Where can you be in a safe place?”
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
