Israeli forces kill a Hamas commander in a West Bank hospital, the army says

Israeli forces stormed a Palestinian hospital in the occupied West Bank early Tuesday morning, killing three militants, including a Hamas commander, according to the Israeli military and Palestinian officials.

The top Palestinian health official in Jenin, Wisam Sbeihat, said Israeli troops entered the Ibn Sina Specialized Hospital in the northern West Bank city of Jenin dressed in civilian clothes and carrying weapons. They then went to the room where the Hamas commander, Mohammad Jalamneh, 27, was staying with two friends and shot all three, Mr. Sbeihat said.

Surveillance video issued The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry on Tuesday showed several armed men in apparent civilian clothes – including one wearing a white medical coat and another in blue scrubs – walking through hospital halls brandishing weapons.

“They killed these three people, including a patient,” said Dr. Sbeihat in a telephone interview, adding that Israeli forces also arrested two Palestinian medical workers.

In a statement, Hamas mourned Mr. Jalamneh as leader of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian faction. A local militia linked to Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed his associates – Mohammad and Basil Ghazawi – as members.

The Israeli military said all three were involved in militant activities, including attacks on Israelis. Mr. Jalamneh also planned “to carry out a terrorist attack in the near future and used the hospital as a hideout,” the military said.

One of the men who accompanied him, Basil Ghazawi, was being treated at the hospital's rehabilitation unit, Mr Sbeihat said. The Israeli military said he and his brother, Mohammed Ghazawi, were “hiding in the hospital.”

Rising violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where millions of Palestinians live under Israeli military rule, has raised fears of a new front in the Middle East crisis stemming from Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. At least 367 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and civilians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the start of the war in Gaza, the highest number in years, the United Nations said on Monday.

Israel has escalated its efforts to crack down on Palestinian militant activity in the West Bank since Hamas' surprise Oct. 7 attack on Israel sparked outright war. According to the Israeli military, more than 2,960 Palestinians have been arrested in almost daily raids since the war began.