Killing of Palestinian in hospital dubbed 'extrajudicial execution'

Thousands of Palestinians on Thursday attended the funeral of Abdullah Azzam Shalaldah in the Hebron town of Sair, hours after he was shot dead by undercover Israeli forces during a dawn raid at a Hebron hospital.

Amnesty International said wounds to the 28-year-old's head and upper body suggested the shooting was an "extrajudicial execution".

"The killing of Abdullah Shalaldah is the latest in a pattern of killings by Israeli forces which Amnesty International considers to have been unlawful," Amnesty reported.

"The Israeli military's own regulations allow soldiers in the occupied West Bank to open fire only when their lives are in imminent danger. It appears that this was not the case in the shooting of Abdullah Shalaldah, as he was unarmed."

Security camera footage of a deadly Israeli arrest raid in a West Bank hospital on Thursday gave a rare glimpse into the murky undercover units that Israel uses to repress armed Palestinian resistance to the occupation.

In the footage, Israeli officers disguised as Palestinian civilians - including some wearing fake moustaches and beards or dressed as women - burst into the hospital and dragged away a wanted Palestinian in a wheelchair.

One man was shot dead, identified by hospital workers as the Palestinian's cousin.

The pre-dawn raid in Hebron outraged Palestinians, and drew accusations from around the world that Israel had improperly used force in a building that should be immune, or at least insulated, from military operations.

"This is an outright crime," said Jihad Shawar, director of the Al-Ahli Hospital. "No one should violate hospitals, but Israel did."

Israel has long used undercover units to arrest wanted suspects. But rarely are their activities captured on camera so vividly.

The hospital released security camera footage showing about a dozen men entering a hospital ward shortly before 4:00am. A person in a wheelchair suddenly stood up as the undercover Israelis pulled out their weapons and walked down the hall.

At one point, a bearded man shouted and pushed a bewildered hospital worker. Roughly two minutes later, the infiltrators were seen pushing a man in a wheelchair, presumably the suspect, back down the hallway.

As they left, one officer turned to the hospital worker and motioned, apparently to let him know that someone was shot. As the kidnappers left, a pair of hospital workers rushed toward the area of the shooting.

Azzam Shalaldeh, 20, was being treated in the hospital for a gunshot wound he sustained during an alleged stabbing attempt on an Israeli. 

An Israeli statement said that during the raid on the hospital, troops shot dead a man who attacked them. Hospital workers identified him as Shalaldeh's cousin, Abdallah, and said he was shot as he emerged from a bathroom.

Osama Najjar, the spokesman for the Palestinian Health Ministry, called the incident an "assassination" - a statement echoed by Amnesty international.  

"The fact that Abdullah Shalaldah 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," said Philip Luther, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.

"Israeli forces must immediately cease their use of intentional lethal force against people who are not posing an imminent threat to life."

Israel has used undercover units behind enemy lines since the time of its founding in 1948. But operations used against Palestinians took their current shape roughly 25 years ago, at the time of the first Palestinian uprising.

Both the Israeli army and the paramilitary border police maintain such units. During the recent escalation, the units have been especially active, and Thursday's incident was not the first time they have been caught on camera.

In one videotaped case, undercover officers dragged a shooting suspect out of a West Bank hospital. Another time, they entered an east Jerusalem hospital to confiscate documents.

Last month, a group of men posing as Palestinian protesters and mingling with rock-throwers in the West Bank were filmed suddenly drawing their weapons and arresting a protester, shooting one in the knee at point-blank range.

Palestinian protesters say the presence of undercover agents is a constant concern, and they often assign people to act as lookouts for agents provocateurs.

The Palestinians accuse the units of using excessive and even deadly force, pointing to numerous cases of Palestinians killed in arrest raids over the years.