The director of Hebron’s al-Ahly hospital, Jehad Shawar, told Palestine radio that 20-30 men had arrived at the clinic in two mini vans.
Advertisement
Palestinian officials, however, expressed outrage over the killing of the man Health Minister Jawad Awad identified as 27-year-old Abdallah Shalaldeh.
The clashes erupted following the funeral of Mr Shalaldeh’s relative, shot dead during an undercover Israeli raid on a hospital in Hebron to seize a suspect in the stabbing of an Israeli. An Israeli spokesman said Azaam had been shot by settlers after the alleged October 25 stabbing and called the Shalaalda family “known Hamas operatives”.
Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet, said Abdullah had “attacked the force”.
The Obama administration said Thursday it doesn’t consider a new European Union rule outlawing “Made in Israel” tags on goods from the West Bank as a boycott of the Jewish state, only a technical guideline for consumers.
Such raids have been increasingly common amid the recent crackdown on Palestinians, with Israeli checkpoints making it increasingly hard for Palestinians to access neighborhood hospitals, and have been pressuring hospital staff to turn over people wounded in military raids. Israelis have been stabbed and shot on buses, in shopping centres, and as they walk in their neighbourhoods, and run down at public transport stops by Palestinian drivers, in hundreds of such attacks.
The Israeli army confirmed the raid and shooting but did not have details of the man’s condition.
The Obama administration has had to recognise that trying to prevent a slide into intensified Israeli-Palestinian violence appears to be more important at the minute than to pursue an unlikely peace breakthrough.
In Silwad, northeast of Palestinian political capital Ramallah, the army razed the home of a man accused of killing an Israeli on a West Bank road in June.
The hospital room slaying brought to at least 75 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since the start of October, dozens as a result of Israel’s policy of summary execution encouraged by its top leaders.
A Palestinian gunman killed an Israeli father and son driving through the southern West Bank on Friday, continuing a two-month wave of violence.
Israel forces deployed roadblocks and were searching the area for the assailant, who reportedly fled by vehicle. The rest died in clashes with Israeli security forces in the West Bank.
Human rights groups have slammed Israel’s use of force during the latest escalation.
Similar raids by the special unit are frequent in the West Bank.
Advertisement
Also on Thursday, Israel’s High Court of Justice overturned a lower court ruling, lifting a temporary injunction on the demolition of the homes of Palestinian families of youth accused of carrying out attacks on Israelis.
