IDF kills Palestinian during Hebron hospital raid to arrest stabber

Israeli security forces shot and killed a Palestinian man early Thursday morning during an overnight raid in a Hebron hospital to arrest a suspect in a stabbing attack two weeks ago.

Abdullah Azzam Shalaldeh was shot when soldiers raided the Alahli Hosptial in Hebron to arrest his cousin Azzam Izzat Shalaldeh.

According to Palestinian health officials, Abdullah Shalaldeh died from his injuries.

“Abdallah Azzam Shalaldeh, aged 27, was killed by a unit of undercover agents at the Hebron hospital,” said the Palestinian health ministry.

The Israeli military said it could only confirm that he was shot and injured.

The Shin Bet security agency said in a statement that Shalaldeh was shot when attacking soldiers as they tried to arrest his cousin.

The Shin Bet said it raided the hospital with IDF and Border Police troops to arrest Azzam Shalaldeh, 20, after receiving intelligence that he was recovering there after being shot during a stabbing attack on a West Bank road two weeks ago.

The director of the hospital said undercover commandos arrived at approximately 3 A.M. in two minibuses and entered through the front gate, pretending to escort a pregnant woman through the maternity ward in order not to arouse suspicion.

“I don’t know if it was a woman or a man, but it certainly seemed like a scene that we see in the early hours of the morning with women who come to give birth. They pushed the wheelchair through the corridor and at one point and they pulled out a weapon concealed inside it,” he said. “They went up to the third floor and entered the surgical ward. There they arrested the wounded man and took him out in the same wheelchair.”

A video was posted to YouTube claiming to show security footage of undercover Israeli troops walking through the hospital while pushing a person in a wheelchair.

The Shin Bet said Azzam Shalaldeh had been taken to an undisclosed Israeli hospital.

Shalaldeh was accused of stabbing an Israeli man who got out of his car after being stoned outside the West Bank settlement of Metzad, south of Jerusalem.

He was shot by the stabbing victim, but managed to escape the scene, making his way to the Alahli Hosptial where he has been receiving treatment for the past two weeks..

According to the Shin Bet, Azzam Shalaldeh is the son of a known Hamas operative.

The Israeli middle-aged man sustained moderate injuries to his upper body during the attack.

Initial reports had suggested there may have been more than one attacker, and they were dressed as ultra-Orthodox Jews. The IDF later determined that its initial findings were incorrect and that there was only one attacker, who was not dressed up as an ultra-Orthodox Jew.

Judah Ari Gross and AFP contributed to this report.