RAMALLAH, Palestine
Undercover Israeli Special Forces shot dead a Palestinian man inside a hospital in occupied West Bank Thursday, Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
The deceased was identified as Abdullah Shalaldeh, 27, who was killed at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron city.
"Around 20 undercover Israeli forces stormed the hospital, terrorized and threatened the medical staff, and then stormed the room of Azzam Shalaldeh, who was shot last month by Israeli settlers," Al-Ahli Hospital Director Jihad Shawer told Anadolu Agency.
"His cousin Abdullah who was in the bathroom was executed with four bullets in the head, chest and hand," Shawer said.
Following the incident, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Al-Hamdallah instructed Palestinian security services to form a joint force to protect hospitals in occupied West Bank.
Palestinian Minister of Health Jawwad Awwad called on the international community to provide protection to Palestinian hospitals.
"The international silence on Israeli incursions at Palestinian hospitals has increased violations and led to the execution of a patient’s escort," Awwad said in a statement.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, Thursday's incident brings the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since Oct. 1 to 83, including 18 children and four women.
Eleven Israelis have also been killed during the same period.
- Demolition order
On Wednesday, Israeli authorities handed a confiscation and demolition order of a house of an alleged Palestinian attacker, Baha Ellian, in occupied East Jerusalem.
"The Israeli authorities handed me a confiscation and demolition order of my house located in Jabl Al-neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem," Mohammad Ellian the house owner, told Anadolu Agency.
Last month, Ellian, 22, was killed during an attack on an Israeli bus that led to the death of three Israelis, according to Israeli police.
- Settlers enter Aqsa compound
Earlier Thursday, scores of Jewish settlers forced their way into east Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, where they tried to perform their “Talmudic rituals”, a Palestinian official said.
“The settlers numbered around 40 and stormed the mosque compound in small groups through the Al-Mugharbeh gate and left through the Al-Rahmeh gate," Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, director-general of Al-Aqsa affairs, told Anadolu Agency.
Meanwhile, Israeli police continues to ban 40 female Muslim worshipers from entering Al-Aqsa mosque under the pretext of security concerns, al-Khatib added.
Also Thursday, 450 settlers in four buses backed by 40 Israeli soldiers entered "Joseph's Tomb", a holy site venerated by both Muslims and Jews, and preformed their rituals, Ahmed Shamekh, a Palestinian official at the nearby Balata refugee camp, told Anadolu Agency.
Joseph's Tomb has long been a flashpoint between Muslim worshipers and extremist Jewish settlers. Jews believe the site represents the burial place of the biblical patriarch Joseph. Muslims, however, challenge this claim, saying an Islamic cleric – Sheikh Yussef Dawiqat – was buried at the site two centuries ago.
- Mass arrests
Israeli forces have arrested 417 Palestinians including 121 minors in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, a Palestinian nongovernmental organization said Thursday.
Most of the detentions were carried out in Jerusalem, 181, and Hebron, 50, the Palestinian Prisoners Society said in a statement.
The Prisoners Society, however, added that more than 2,000 Palestinians were detained by Israeli forces since the beginning of the new Palestinian "Intifada" ("popular uprising") in October; 500 of them were transferred to administrative detention, it added.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs, more than 6,500 Palestinians are currently languishing in detention facilities throughout Israel.
