Undercover Israeli forces operate inside Ibn Sina hospital in the West Bank city of Jenin to kill terror operatives, January 30, 2024. (Screenshot: X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law.)
CCTV footage shows undercover forces in fake beards or dressed as Muslim women before they killed 3 armed Hamas members in West Bank medical center, in dramatic 10-minute raid.
Israeli commandos killed three members of an armed Hamas cell hiding inside a hospital in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday morning, the military said, with dramatic footage circulating of the operation.
The cell was allegedly planning imminent terror attacks, inspired by the October 7 Hamas onslaught in Gaza-adjacent Israeli communities.
The operation at Jenin’s Ibn Sina Hospital was carried out jointly by the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet security agency, and the Yamam police counter-terrorism unit.
Palestinian media published extraordinary surveillance camera footage of the operation and reported that it took just 10 minutes to carry out.
The footage showed many undercover forces, some appearing to sport fake beards and others dressed as Muslim women, scouring the hospital corridors while carrying guns.
One of the officers carries a wheelchair, while another has a baby carrier.
The Israeli forces reportedly entered the medical center at 5:30 a.m. dressed as doctors, nurses, and Palestinian women, headed to a hiding room on the third floor, and shot the surprised trio dead in their beds before escaping the building unscathed. The commandos reportedly used guns with silencers in the raid.
In a joint statement, the IDF, Shin Bet, and police said the leader of the terror cell, Muhammad Jalamneh, 27, had been in contact with Hamas officials abroad. He was previously injured while preparing a car bomb attack, armed other operatives for shooting attacks, and planned “a raid attack inspired by the events of October 7,” according to the statement.
Jalamneh was also reported to be a spokesperson for Hamas’s military wing in the Jenin camp.
A handgun on Jalamneh’s body was seized during the raid, the IDF said.
The IDF named the other two operatives as brothers Muhammad and Basel Ghazawi. Muhammad was involved in shooting attacks at Israeli troops in the West Bank while Basel was a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, according to the military.
Muhammad Jalamneh and brothers Muhammad and Basel Ghazawi, alleged terror operatives killed by Israeli forces at Ibn Sina hospital in the city of Jenin in the West Bank, January 30, 2024. (Courtesy; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law.)
Many wanted Palestinians have long been staying in the hospital to plan and carry out terror attacks, hoping the medical center would provide protection from Israeli counter terror operations, the military said, in “another example of the cynical use by terror groups of civilian spaces and hospitals as cover and as human shields.” The comment was an apparent reference to the same tactic used by Gaza terrorists.
The IDF, Shin Bet, and police accused Jalamneh of using the hospital as a hideout while planning attacks to be carried out in “the immediate time frame.”
Israeli troops have carried out dozens of raids in and around Jenin in recent months. Israel says that the PA has lost control of areas of the northern West Bank, allowing terror groups to entrench themselves and launch attacks on Israelis on both sides of the Green Line.
Since October 7, troops have arrested more than 2,980 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,350 affiliated with Hamas. According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 300 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time.
In early January, a Border Police officer was killed and three others wounded by a roadside bomb, and seven Palestinians were killed in an airstrike during an overnight raid in the Jenin refugee camp.