[News] Israel executes Palestinian in hospital room

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Israel executes Palestinian in hospital room

Ali Abunimah <https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah>
*https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-executes-palestinian-hospital-room*
13 November 2015

The execution of a man at a hospital in the occupied West Bank city of 
Hebron <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hebron> early Thursday has 
generated shock even among Palestinians familiar with Israel’s brutality.

At 2:43am, two dozen Israeli gunmen disguised as Palestinians invaded 
al-Ahli hospital. They included two dressed as women, one as a pregnant 
woman in a wheelchair, and others wearing fake beards, according to 
<http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11355:israeli-undercover-agents-raid-al-ahli-hospital-in-hebron-kill-a-civilian-in-cold-blood-and-arrest-another-wounded&catid=145:in-focus> 
the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinian-centre-human-rights>.

Three of the agents obstructed the hospital entrance and ordered medical 
staff not to move.

The other Israelis went up to the surgery department on the third floor 
and detained medical staff.

At around 2:45, five agents, including two disguised as women, raided a 
patient’s room.

Four gunshots were heard and the agents left, taking 20-year-old Azzam 
Izzat Shaban al-Shalalda, a patient in the hospital.

In the room they shot dead his 28-year-old cousin Abdallah Azzam Shaban 
al-Shalalda.

The hospital room slaying brought to at least 75 
<http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11323:palestinian-victims-killed-by-israeli-forces-since-02-october-2015&catid=145:in-focus> 
the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since the start of 
October, dozens as a result of Israel’s policy of summary execution 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israels-executions-palestinian-teens-must-end-amnesty-says> 
encouraged by 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/palestinian-lives-dont-matter-us-media> 
its top leaders.

Between 5 and 11 November, Israeli forces killed seven Palestinian 
civilians, including a child and two women, in the occupied West Bank 
and Gaza Strip, according to 
<http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11352:weekly-report-on-israeli-human-rights-violations-in-the-occupied-palestinian-territory-05-11-november-2015&catid=84:weekly-2009&Itemid=183> 
the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.

More than 100 Palestinians, including 49 children, were wounded. Amid 
almost 60 raids into Palestinian communities, Israel arrested 118 
Palestinians, including more than two dozen children.

On Friday, unknown assailants shot at a car 
<http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4725112,00.html> in the 
southern occupied West Bank near the Israeli settlement of Otniel.

Two Israeli men were killed and a 16-year-old was moderately injured. 
These deaths brought to 13 the number of Israelis killed since the start 
of October.

Israeli occupation forces shot dead two Palestinians during 
demonstrations on Friday, Ma’an News Agency reported 
<http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768817>.

Hassan Jihad al-Baw, 23, was shot in the heart during clashes in Halhul, 
near Hebron. Lafi Yusif Awad was fatally injured with gunfire to the 
abdomen, in the Ramallah-area village of Budrus.

That same day, 22-year-old Issa al-Shalalda, from the village of Sair 
near Hebron, died from wounds 
<http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768801> he sustained a day 
earlier after being shot during confrontations with Israeli forces.

The protests followed the funeral of Abdallah al-Shalalda, executed by 
Israeli forces in a hospital the day prior, attended by thousands in the 
village <http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768801>.


    Shot as he emerged from bathroom

Abdallah al-Shalalda suffered three bullet wounds to his head, chest and 
arm, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.

Hospital staff and eyewitnesses, including another al-Shalalda relative, 
told /The Guardian/ 
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/12/palestinian-shot-dead-in-israeli-undercover-raid-on-west-bank-hospital> 
that the Israelis hid guns beneath the agent pretending to be a pregnant 
woman.

The relative, Bilal al-Shalalda, described the Israeli attack: “It was 
around 3am and I was asleep when a large number of undercover soldiers 
arrived. They put the other patients in the corner and tied my hands 
with a belt. When Abdallah came out of the bathroom where he was washing 
his hands in preparation for morning prayers they shot him and left him 
to bleed on the floor.”

Security footage shows the Israeli gunmen entering the hospital. At one 
point they can be seen pushing a wheelchair down a hallway when suddenly 
they draw guns and begin running: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZJtFm8uZAI

*Extrajudicial execution *

Israel claimed that Azzam al-Shalalda was in the hospital to be treated 
for gunshot wounds he sustained when he allegedly tried to stab an 
Israeli settler two weeks ago.

But the medical charity Doctors Without Borders 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/doctors-without-borders> told Ma’an 
News Agency <http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768793> that Azzam 
al-Shalalda was being treated in its Mental Health Support Program for 
victims of political violence.

The group condemned the raid and said it is “very concerned about the 
fate of the patient taken away from the hospital and strongly demands to 
the Israeli authorities to provide adequate medical attention and 
information on his conditions in the shortest delay.”

“Israeli forces have a long history of carrying out unlawful killings in 
the occupied Palestinian territories, including extrajudicial 
executions,” Philip Luther, Middle East program director for Amnesty 
International, said 
<https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/11/israel-opt-investigate-apparent-extrajudicial-execution-at-hebron-hospital/>.

“The fact that Abdullah al-Shalalda was shot in the head and upper body 
suggests this was an extrajudicial execution, adding to a disturbing 
pattern of similar recent incidents by Israeli forces in the West Bank 
which warrant urgent investigation,” Luther added.

“Witnesses report that he was not armed, was some meters away from the 
soldiers and police and had not attempted to attack them,” according 
Luther. “There was no attempt to arrest Abdullah al-Shalalda, according 
to the witnesses, or to use non-lethal alternatives before shooting him 
dead.”

Amnesty also pointed to the 6 November slaying of 72-year-old Tharwat 
al-Sharawi 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-israeli-soldiers-fire-car-killing-elderly-woman>, 
who Israel says tried to run over some of its occupation soldiers in Hebron.

“A video of the incident shows the car which she was driving heading 
towards the soldiers at a speed slow enough to allow the soldiers to 
jump out of the way and then begin shooting heavily at the car,” Amnesty 
said.

While al-Sharawi’s family said their mother was on her way to lunch at a 
relative’s home, Amnesty stated that even if she had planned to carry 
out an attack, “the imminent danger had passed and accordingly … the use 
of lethal force was unlawful.”


    Attacks on medical facilities

The murder of Abdallah al-Shalalda and abduction of his cousin Azzam 
marks the most brazen of a series of Israeli attacks on medical 
facilities in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Israelis disguised as Palestinians – so-called /mistaravim/ 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/mistaravim> – invaded a hospital in 
Nablus 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-israeli-gunmen-kidnap-patient-palestinian-hospital> 
last month and kidnapped a patient.

Occupation forces have repeatedly raided 
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-raids-hospital-blocks-medical-care-jerusalem/14971> 
Jerusalem’s al-Makassed hospital 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-makassed-hospital>, confiscating 
patient files and detaining, interrogating and firing tear gas at 
medical personnel.

In October, the Palestine Red Crescent Society documented 228 Israeli 
violations against healthcare facilities, including assaults on medical 
staff and delays of and attacks on ambulances by Israeli forces, 
according to 
<http://www.alhaq.org/documentation/field-updates-2015/988-special-focus-attacks-against-health-facilities-and-medical-staff-by-the-iof> 
the human rights group Al-Haq <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-haq>.

The United Nations and other international bodies have condemned the 
Israeli attacks on medical facilities as violations of international law 
and fundamental rights. But governments have taken no action to hold 
Israel accountable and puncture the impunity it continues to enjoy.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20151113/d8cbad32/attachment.htm>