Doctors Without Borders Condemns Undercover Hospital Raid In Which One Person Was Killed
By Ma'an News Agency
13 November, 2015
Maannews.com
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Thursday condemned Israel's undercover arrest raid earlier in the day in al-Ahli hospital in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.
The organization told Ma'an that it urged "the relevant military authorities to respect the special status that [International Humanitarian Law] grants to medical facilities and the wounded and sick."
MSF said that Azzam Ezzat Shalaldah, 20, who was shot by an Israeli settler last month, was a patient of the group and was being treated in their Mental Health Support Program "for victims of political violence."
The group said that the way in which Shalaldah was detained was "serious" and contrary "to the principles of neutrality and respect of the medical mission."
"International Humanitarian Law requires the respect of health facilities and forbids any intrusion of the armed forces in these structures," MSF said, adding that international law "demands that sick and wounded people would be treated without any discrimination in conformity with medical ethics."
During the undercover raid, Shalaldah's cousin, Abdullah Azzam Shalaldah, 28, was shot and killed while coming out of a bathroom in the hospital ward. His other cousin, Bilal, who was in the room with Shalaldah was handcuffed during the incident, but not detained.
MSF demanded that the relevant authorities inform and train "members of the armed forces on their obligation to respect medical facilities and personnel, as well as patients... and their caretakers" in order to prevent another incident of this kind.
Shalaldah, who was detained during the undercover raid, was still in recovery after undergoing three surgeries at the hospital where he was admitted mid-October.
MFS said the organization is "very concerned about the fate of the patient taken away from the hospital and strongly demands to the Israeli authorities to provide the adequate medical attention and information on his conditions in the shortest delay."
MSF also requested that Israel allow Shalaldah to continue his mental health treatment through the organization.
Undercover Israeli forces shoot dead Palestinian in Hebron hospital
Undercover Israeli forces on Thursday shot dead a Palestinian during a hospital raid in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, witnesses and hospital staff said.
Abdullah Azzam Shalaldah, 28, was shot several times by forces who raided the surgery unit of al-Ahli hospital in order to detain his cousin, Azzam Ezzat Shalaldah, 20, who was shot by an Israeli settler last month, hospital staff told Ma’an.
Abdullah and another relative were in the hospital visiting Azzam when around 20 undercover Israeli soldiers entered the hospital at around 4:00 a.m., witnesses said.
The forces tied up the relative while Abdullah, who was in the bathroom at the time, entered the room and was shot dead on scene.
The undercover forces then retreated from the hospital with Azzam, taking him into custody, witnesses added.
Video footage from security cameras shows a group of around 16 men walking through the corridors of the hospital just before 4 a.m. pushing a wheel chair, when suddenly the man sitting down removes his blanket, stands up, and all the men draw guns and proceed down the hall.
The footage also shows what appears to be an Israeli agent dressed as a Palestinian woman, and other Israeli forces dressed as Palestinian Muslim men, wearing keffiyehs and appearing to have fake beards.
An Israeli army spokesperson was unable to comment on the presence of undercover forces during the raid, while Israeli media reported that the forces arrived in two large vans with someone pretending to be pregnant.
The army spokesperson told Ma’an that a combined force of Israeli army and police members had entered the hospital in order to detain Azzam, when an “additional suspect attacked the forces.”
The forces responded with live fire, killing the man, the spokesperson confirmed.
The spokesperson said that the forces detained Azzam on the grounds that he “stabbed an Israeli in the chest in Gush Etzion” on Oct. 25, wounding him severely, adding that "the victim shot him" as he fled the scene.
The spokesperson added that the "Shalaldah family are known Hamas operatives.”
Palestinian security sources told Ma’an on Oct. 25 following the attack that Azzam was shot by an Israeli settler.
A spokesperson for Hadassah hospital said at the time that the settler, 58, had received a light "stab" wound to his chest, and had possibly been hit with a stone in his head.
Palestinian witnesses told Ma'an that they believed that the alleged Palestinian attacker had fled the scene unharmed and that Azzam had been working in agricultural fields when he was shot.
Abdullah, from the Hebron-area village of Sair, was the 80th Palestinian to be killed since Oct. 1.
The majority of those killed were shot dead by Israeli forces during alleged, attempted, and actual attacks on Israeli military and civilians.
Ten Israelis have been killed by individual Palestinians during the same time period.