WEST BANK: Palestinians mourn for 27-year-old Abdallah Shalalbeh, in the West Bank village of Sa’ir, near Hebron, yesterday. —AP WEST BANK: Palestinians mourn for 27-year-old Abdallah Shalalbeh, in the West Bank village of Sa’ir, near Hebron, yesterday. —AP

HEBRON: Israeli undercover forces raided a hospital in the West Bank yesterday, shooting dead a Palestinian during an attempt to detain another man suspected of carrying out a stabbing, the Palestinian health ministry and doctors said.

The Israeli army confirmed the raid and shooting but did not have details of the man’s condition. It said the raid was carried out to detain Azzam al-Shalalda, 27, who was suspected of stabbing an Israeli settler two weeks ago in the West Bank. The director of Hebron’s al-Ahly hospital, Jehad Shawar, told Palestine radio 20-30 men arrived at the clinic in two mini vans at around three o’clock in the morning.

They entered with someone in a wheelchair pretending to be pregnant. CCTV footage from inside the hospital showed a large group of men armed with pistols and rifles, some with beards and others with keffiyeh scarves on their heads, walking through the corridors telling hospital workers to get out of the way. “They held the staff at gunpoint and stormed the room of Shalalda,” Shawar said. Shalalda’s brother Bilal, who was asleep in the room, said he was tied to the bed by the Israeli forces.

A cousin, Abdallah, who was in the bathroom, was shot dead when he suddenly entered the room, Shawar said. “As his cousin exited the bathroom, which was inside the room, they fired five bullets, one bullet in the head, one in the chest and three in his body,” Shawar told the radio station. “They took Azzam and placed him in the wheelchair they brought the woman in and they exited the room preventing anyone from giving medical aid to the young man lying on the floor.” Palestinian Health Minister Jawad Awad accused Israeli security forces of “executing” Abdallah al-Shalalda, who he said was escorting a relative inside the hospital. “The international community must intervene to protect our people from the Israeli killing machine,” he said.