Israel’s Targeted Killings in West Bank Hospital May Have Been War Crime, Say UN Experts

 Smoke rises from Gaza, as the sun sets, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, as seen from Sderot, Israel, February 9, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke rises from Gaza, as the sun sets, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, as seen from Sderot, Israel, February 9, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israel’s Targeted Killings in West Bank Hospital May Have Been War Crime, Say UN Experts

 Smoke rises from Gaza, as the sun sets, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, as seen from Sderot, Israel, February 9, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke rises from Gaza, as the sun sets, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, as seen from Sderot, Israel, February 9, 2024. (Reuters)

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.



Gaza Health Ministry Reports 51 Deaths from Israeli Strikes, Bringing Overall Toll to Over 52,000

Palestinians search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, May 14, 2024. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
Palestinians search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, May 14, 2024. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
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Gaza Health Ministry Reports 51 Deaths from Israeli Strikes, Bringing Overall Toll to Over 52,000

Palestinians search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, May 14, 2024. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
Palestinians search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, May 14, 2024. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo

Hospitals in the Gaza Strip received the remains of 51 Palestinians over the past 24 hours who were killed in Israeli strikes, the local Health Ministry said Sunday, bringing the Palestinian death toll from the 18-month-old Israel-Hamas war to 52,243.

The overall toll includes nearly 700 bodies for which the documentation process was recently completed, the ministry said in its latest update. The daily toll includes bodies retrieved from the rubble after earlier strikes.

Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas by launching a surprise bombardment on March 18, and has been carrying out daily waves of strikes since then. Ground forces have expanded a buffer zone and encircled the southern city of Rafah, and now control around 50% of the territory.

Israel has also sealed off the territory's 2 million Palestinians from all imports, including food and medicine, for nearly 60 days. Aid groups say supplies will soon run out and that thousands of children are malnourished, The AP news reported.

Israeli authorities say the renewed offensive and tightened blockade are aimed at pressuring Hamas to release hostages abducted in its Oct. 7, 2023r Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed or disarmed, and all the hostages are returned.

Hamas has said it will only release the remaining 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as called for in the now-defunct ceasefire reached in January.

Gaza's Health Ministry says women and children make up most of the Palestinian deaths, but does not say how many were militants or civilians. It says another 117,600 people have been wounded in the war.

The overall tally includes 2,151 dead and 5,598 wounded since Israel resumed the war last month.

Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and it blames Hamas for their deaths because the militants operate in densely populated areas.

Israel's offensive has destroyed vast parts of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population, leaving hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in squalid tent camps or bombed-out buildings.