Israeli forces overnight on Monday eliminated three members of a Hamas terror cell in the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin in Samaria. The cell was planning imminent terror attacks inspired by Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Israeli media reported the undercover operation took only 10 minutes, with forces entering the hospital dressed as doctors, nurses and Palestinian women.
They went directly to a safe room on the third floor of the building and shot the terrorists with silenced weapons before exiting unharmed.
The IDF identified one of the terrorists as Muhammad Jalamneh, 27, who it said was in contact with Hamas leaders abroad, had procured weapons for a shooting attack and was previously injured while plotting a car bombing.
The other terrorists were named as brothers Muhammad and Basel Ghazawi. The former was involved in a shooting attack on Israeli troops, while the latter was a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.
Palestinian terrorists have long used the hospital as a base to plan and carry out terror attacks, according to the IDF, in “another example of the cynical use by terror groups of civilian spaces and hospitals as cover and as human shields.”
Overnight on Sunday, Israeli security forces uncovered a tunnel shaft rigged with explosive charges in the Jenin refugee camp as 19 Palestinians were arrested in counterterror operations across Judea and Samaria.
Palestinians booby-trapped the shaft with the intent of harming soldiers, according to the IDF. Two wanted terrorists were arrested inside the camp, and weapons were confiscated.
In November, the IDF eliminated five Palestinian terrorists during a counterterror raid in Jenin. During the operation, an Israeli drone struck a group of terrorists firing on soldiers. Other Palestinians threw explosives.
Several Palestinian gunmen fled in cars and an ambulance in the direction of Ibn Sina Hospital, according to the IDF. One of the terrorists was caught at the entrance to the medical center. A search of his vehicle turned up three M-16 rifles.
Earlier this month, U.S. spy agencies verified Israeli claims that Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists used Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City as a command center and to hold hostages.
In late November, the Israel Defense Forces released extensive video evidence of terror tunnels under Shifa Hospital—the Gaza Strip’s largest medical facility—saying it “unequivocally” proved the modus operandi of Hamas, “which systematically operates from hospitals.”
The terrorist group held at least three of the estimated 240 hostages it kidnapped on Oct. 7 at Shifa, the IDF said.
