An operation by Israeli security forces who dressed as medics and women to enter a West Bank hospital and killed three Palestinians inside last month may amount to a war crime and violations of international law, independent UN human rights experts said Friday.
Security camera footage showed about a dozen undercover forces wearing Muslim headscarves, hospital scrubs or white doctor’s coats as they entered Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin on Jan. 29. One carried a rifle in one arm and a folded wheelchair in the other.
Israel’s military said forces killed Mohammed Jalamneh, who it said was planning an imminent attack, and brothers Basel and Mohammed Ghazawi, who were allegedly hiding inside the hospital and were involved in attacks.
“In occupied territory under Israeli control, outside active hostilities, at most Israeli forces may have been entitled to arrest or detain them. They could only use force if strictly necessary to prevent an imminent threat to life or serious injury,” the experts said. “Instead, Israel chose to murder them, in flagrant violation of their right to life.”
Under international humanitarian law, they said, “killing a defenseless injured patient who is being treated in a hospital amounts to a war crime.”
Dozens of independent experts work with the United Nations under a mandate from the UN’s Human Rights Council, but do not represent the world body. The five experts who spoke out Friday focus on issues like terrorism, the right to health and arbitrary execution.
The experts called on Israel to investigate the episode in view to prosecuting those responsible and said they would urge the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to launch a probe if Israel does not carry out a “prompt investigation” of the killings.
