Israel says undercover troops kill 3 gunmen in West Bank hospital

Mourners react next to the body of a Palestinian killed following an Israeli raid, in a hospital in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank January 30, 2024. REUTERS

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli commandos disguised as Palestinians killed three gunmen in a hospital in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the police and military said, accusing one of them of planning an imminent attack and the other two of involvement in recent violence.

CCTV circulated online appeared to show around a dozen undercover troops, including three in women’s clothing and two dressed as medical staff, pacing through a corridor of Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin with assault rifles.

Reuters could not immediately verify the footage.

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Israel’s border police said three Palestinian gunmen were killed in an operation by the force’s undercover unit. The Israeli military identified one of them as a Hamas member who, it said, planned an “attack inspired by the Oct. 7 massacre”.

Hamas launched a surprise raid into southern Israel on Oct. 7 which triggered Israel’s assault on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and sparked a surge of violence in the West Bank, another territory where Palestinians seek statehood.

The two additional Palestinians killed in Tuesday’s operation were a member of the Hamas-allied Islamic Jihad and a member of a group of Jenin-based gunmen, the Israeli military statement said. Both had been involved in recent attacks, it said.

There was no immediate Palestinian confirmation of the men’s identities. Voice of Palestine radio reported three Palestinian had been killed at the hospital.