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.
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“Israeli forces have a long history of carrying out unlawful killings in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including extrajudicial executions”.
Eli Bin of Israel’s emergency services says a third Israeli was wounded during the attack on Friday afternoon.
Twelve Israelis and dozens of Palestinians have been killed in recent unrest.
Israel has said such demolitions are punitive and can also serve as a deterrent to other potential attackers. The undercover unit, which is reportedly made up of Israeli soldiers, members of the Shin Bet secret police and border police, was seen recently attempting to blend in with Palestinian demonstrators and then pulling out guns and shooting them at close range.
Two Israelis and a Palestinian were shot dead Friday in separate incidents in and around the West Bank city of Hebron, the army and medical sources said.
The intensified demolitions are among a raft of get-tough policies ordered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under pressure from far-right coalition partners. “We will find the despicable murderers and bring them to justice as we have in the past”, he said in a statement. “So, I feel a little more liberated to do what I think is necessary”, he said.
The Israeli military is preparing to call up to 70 defense battalions in 2016 as violence in the West Bank with Palestinian protestors continues.
The city is a frontline of the conflict, with 500 Jewish settlers living under military protection in the centre of a city of 200,000 Palestinians.
Hassan Jihad al-Baw, 23, was shot in the heart during clashes in Halhul, near Hebron.
European countries like Britain, Belgium and Denmark are already implementing such labeling rules in order to differentiate between the products coming from Israel proper and the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank. And earlier Friday, a Palestinian died of wounds sustained in clashes the day before.
The Israeli army confirmed that a man who tried to attack the operatives during the raid had been shot but did not have details of his condition.
Israel’s Channel 2 said a Palestinian vehicle overtook two Israeli cars on a main road and fired at the first, a people carrier, in which a man in his 40s and an 18-year-old youth, thought to be his son, were killed.
Since mid-September, most of the Palestinian attacks have been stabbings, targeting seemingly random pedestrians or people passing by, but Friday’s attack appeared to be more carefully planned and executed.
“The man is in a hospital, he’s not planning to attack soldiers”, said Mr Al Sharif.
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The Israeli government has said it plans on maintaining the status quo, but Palestinians and other independent analysts insist that government support for Jewish groups working on the division of the mosque suggests otherwise. Aside from Hebron, there were disturbances near Ramallah, Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem and at several West Bank junctions.
