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Palestinian gov't decides to form security force to protect hospitals

Xinhua, November 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Palestinian consensus government decided on Thursday to form a security force to protect Palestinian hospitals from Israeli attacks.

The decision came after Israel raided a hospital in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, which killed a Palestinian man and detained his injured cousin.

Secretary General of the Council of Minister Ali Abu Diak said that Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah ordered the security forces to form a "joint force to intensify the guard" and protect hospitals in the Palestinian territories.

Abu Diak considered the raid a "dangerous violation of the international humanitarian law, international conventions of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel and a new ugly crime."

The Palestinian health ministry announced on Thursday that Israeli soldiers shot dead 27-year-old Abdullah Shalaldah in the hospital raid.

The ministry said in a press statement that an Israeli special commando force of 21 soldiers stormed al-Ahli Hospital in the city and killed Shalaldah inside a hospital room.

Abdullah Shalaldah was accompanying his cousin Azzam Shalaldah at the hospital, nurses who witnessed the raid told Xinhua. They said that soldiers disguised in Palestinian clothes and entered the hospital.

Palestinian Health Minister Jawad Awwad said in a press statement that besides killing Abdullah, the soldiers arrested Azzam Shalaldah and another person.

Israeli undercover forces raided another hospital in Nablus earlier this month, arresting one of the patients.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry seriously condemned the "crime" committed by the special Israeli forces and considered it a "state terror against the Palestinian people." Endit