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<h1 class="page__title title balance-text" id="page-title">Israel
executes Palestinian in hospital room</h1>
<header class="node__header">
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"
datatype="">Ali Abunimah</a></span> <br>
<b><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-executes-palestinian-hospital-room">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-executes-palestinian-hospital-room</a></small></small></small></b><br>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single" property="dc:date"
datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-11-13T14:50:33+00:00">13
November 2015</span></span> </p>
</header>
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<p>The execution of a man at a hospital in the occupied West Bank
city of <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hebron">Hebron</a>
early Thursday has generated shock even among Palestinians
familiar with Israel’s brutality.</p>
<p>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, <a
href="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">according
to</a> the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinian-centre-human-rights">Palestinian
Centre for Human Rights</a>.</p>
<p>Three of the agents obstructed the hospital entrance and ordered
medical staff not to move.</p>
<p>The other Israelis went up to the surgery department on the third
floor and detained medical staff.</p>
<p>At around 2:45, five agents, including two disguised as women,
raided a patient’s room.</p>
<p>Four gunshots were heard and the agents left, taking 20-year-old
Azzam Izzat Shaban al-Shalalda, a patient in the hospital.</p>
<p>In the room they shot dead his 28-year-old cousin Abdallah Azzam
Shaban al-Shalalda.</p>
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<p>The hospital room slaying brought to <a
href="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">at
least 75</a> the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces
since the start of October, dozens as a result of Israel’s <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israels-executions-palestinian-teens-must-end-amnesty-says">policy
of summary execution</a> <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/palestinian-lives-dont-matter-us-media">encouraged
by</a> its top leaders.</p>
<p>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, <a
href="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">according
to</a> the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>On Friday, unknown assailants <a
href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4725112,00.html">shot
at a car</a> in the southern occupied West Bank near the Israeli
settlement of Otniel.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Israeli occupation forces shot dead two Palestinians during
demonstrations on Friday, <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768817">Ma’an News
Agency reported</a>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>That same day, 22-year-old Issa al-Shalalda, from the village of
Sair near Hebron, <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768801">died from
wounds</a> he sustained a day earlier after being shot during
confrontations with Israeli forces.</p>
<p>The protests followed the funeral of Abdallah al-Shalalda,
executed by Israeli forces in a hospital the day prior, <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768801">attended
by thousands in the village</a>.</p>
<h2>Shot as he emerged from bathroom</h2>
<p>Abdallah al-Shalalda suffered three bullet wounds to his head,
chest and arm, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human
Rights.</p>
<p>Hospital staff and eyewitnesses, including another al-Shalalda
relative, <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/12/palestinian-shot-dead-in-israeli-undercover-raid-on-west-bank-hospital">told
<em>The Guardian</em></a> that the Israelis hid guns beneath the
agent pretending to be a pregnant woman.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZJtFm8uZAI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZJtFm8uZAI</a><br>
</p>
<p><b><big><big>Extrajudicial execution
</big></big></b></p>
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.
<p>But the medical charity <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/doctors-without-borders">Doctors
Without Borders</a> <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768793">told Ma’an
News Agency</a> that Azzam al-Shalalda was being treated in its
Mental Health Support Program for victims of political violence.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
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<p>“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, <a
href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/11/israel-opt-investigate-apparent-extrajudicial-execution-at-hebron-hospital/">said</a>.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>Amnesty also pointed to the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-israeli-soldiers-fire-car-killing-elderly-woman">6
November slaying of 72-year-old Tharwat al-Sharawi</a>, who
Israel says tried to run over some of its occupation soldiers in
Hebron.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<h2>Attacks on medical facilities</h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Israelis disguised as Palestinians – so-called <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/mistaravim"><em>mistaravim</em></a>
– <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-israeli-gunmen-kidnap-patient-palestinian-hospital">invaded
a hospital in Nablus</a> last month and kidnapped a patient.</p>
<p>Occupation forces have <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-raids-hospital-blocks-medical-care-jerusalem/14971">repeatedly
raided</a> Jerusalem’s <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-makassed-hospital">al-Makassed
hospital</a>, confiscating patient files and detaining,
interrogating and firing tear gas at medical personnel.</p>
<p>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, <a
href="http://www.alhaq.org/documentation/field-updates-2015/988-special-focus-attacks-against-health-facilities-and-medical-staff-by-the-iof">according
to</a> the human rights group <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-haq">Al-Haq</a>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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