libre
Skylark
My mistake. I see your point.
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Israel-West Bank - Israeli special forces disguised as doctors kill three militants at West Bank hospital
- Thread starter libre
- Start date
This story broke a few days ago. I had not read anywhere that they were "hospitalized". Are you sure that isn't commentary added by whomever aggregated this story? Who said they were hospitalized?
Here is the martyr declaration from Hamas.
It's confirmed this was one of their commanders. Israeli news is reporting there was evidence of an imminent repeat of Oct. 7th in process. Specifically transferring weapons to operatives in the west bank.
"الشهيد القسامي القائد
محمد وليد جلامنة"
"The martyr Al-Qassami, the leader
Muhammad Walid Jalamna"
libre
Skylark
As per the Guardian article in the OP:
- Hospital officials said Basel Ghawazi was being treated after being partially paralysed in an Israeli airstrike on a Jenin cemetery in November that killed four, including a 15-year-old boy.
- The hospital's director, Dr. Naji Nazzal, said the Israeli team entered the hospital at around 5:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) and made its way stealthily to the third floor, ringing the bell to enter the ward where the men were sleeping.
"They executed the three men as they slept in the room," he told Reuters. "They executed them in cold blood by firing bullets directly into their heads in the room where they were being treated."
Just to add ...
The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad militant group said the Al-Ghazzawi brothers were members of its armed wing, while Hamas confirmed that Jalamna belonged to its Al Qassam Brigade. [ibid]
Ok, thank you. One of them was hospitalized according to the hospital which is very likely controlled by anti-israel administrators.
... assassinating one of them who was partially paralyzed while all three of them slept.
Hamas has confirmed one is a leader of the Al-Qassam brigade who participated in the Oct. 7th attack.
Al-Qassam fighters engage IOF on seven fronts outside Gaza: Statement
Hamas' military wing and other Palestinian factions confirm that their fighters continue to engage occupation forces in several Gaza Envelope settlements.
They've been waging war against Israel since the early 1990s.
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades - Wikipedia
The specific individual, Basel Ghawazi, is from a partnering militant faction, the Jenin brigade. The Israeli media is reporting they were imminently in the final stage of a repeat of Oct. 7th, transferring weapons. The partially paralyzed Ghawazi is still capable of planning and coordinating the attack. Cooperation between al-Qassam and the Jenin brigade is consistent with execution of Oct. 7th v.2. Hamas has vowed to repeat the event.
That specific hospital, like all the others, has been used in the past as a rally point and as a refuge when militants are pursued by IDF.
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I suppose I'll also add that undercover operations utilizing camouflage and subterfuge are not illegal ("perfidy") per international law.
casebook.icrc.org
Conduct of hostilities | How does law protect in war? - Online casebook
Let's hope the HAMAS members do not learn that. Dont want them to dress up as IDF and start driving israeli tanks.I suppose I'll also add that undercover operations utilizing camouflage and subterfuge are not illegal ("perfidy") per international law.
Conduct of hostilities | How does law protect in war? - Online casebook
libre
Skylark
Camouflage certainly isn't illegal. However the issue isn't that these operatives were undercover, it's that they were dressing up as Doctors to conduct killings. Presenting that as just another instance of subterfuge is deliberately minimizing.
At the very least I would expect people to acknowledge that this operation will further jeopardize the safety of Doctors in the future, where a patient may suspect their doctor is a combatant.
How does it put Drs at risk? If you look at the video, The "faux-Drs" were carrying guns in plain view. Anyone carrying weapons in that manner is rightfully at risk.
You previously wrote:
If you acknowledge it being an undercover operation you might reasonably presume that they had concealed the weapons until needed. That is, prior to securing their position, they were posing as unarmed hospital personnel.
(Psst - the term "undercover" is a hint.")
The expectation that hospital personnel could well be armed assassins clearly endangers hospital personnel.
libre
Skylark
Imagine for a moment that you're a doctor working in the West Bank.
You would not realistically know who in your hospital could have secret ties to an insurgent group.
So you go on doing your duty and treating patients, and unbeknownst to you one of your patients is a Hamas member.
This Hamas patient is likely threatened, paranoid and otherwise trigger happy to start with. He also now has a reason to distrust you because an assassin dressed up as one of your colleagues just killed his comrades.
Can you see why this would put you in an incredibly dangerous position, where you could be mistaken as a combatant and capped on a split-second judgment of a terrorist?
Any military operation in a hospital endangers hospital personnel. Had this been conventional frontal assault, the risk would be much greater to the hospital personnel and property. In this case, there was an opportunity to eliminate a necessary threat with zero collateral damage. The hospital is intact. No civilians were harmed. The tactics employed did not increase risk to civilians. It increased the risk to the israeli agents who executed it.
I'm a doctor working in the West Bank? OK. I don't know, and can't know, with certainty, if all of those who I'm working with are not "sleeper agents"? Agreed.
True, but, this is not new. There is no increased risk. Israeli intelligence is already suspected of having spies everywhere. The enemies of israel are already paranoid and trigger happy. They have been this way for over a decade. There's a famous Hamas whistle-blower, Mosab Hassan Yousef, Sheik Hassan Yousef's son. He credits his departure from the Hamas organization and deconstruction of violent extremist ideology, of which he was indoctrinated from his father, the founder of Hamas, to witnessing the paranoia and torture of fellow Palestinians who were suspected of being collaborators ( spies ) working with israel.
Besides, the israeli operation in the hospital was completed in approx. 10 minutes, then, they were gone. This was not a sleeper agent scenario.
In some ways yes, but, anytime a hospital treats patients who are armed and paranoid they are putting themselves at risk. Removing the weapons from the patients, and increasing security at the hospital mitigates the risk to everyone in the hospital, including those who are targeted by israel.
The point is, this is not unlawful warfare. The hospital was in use for a military purpose for cover and concealment. That means elements of the hospital environment can be utilized aggressively for cover and concealment. The fact that there were no civilian causalities and no damage to the hospital should be welcome to the objective observer.