Israeli army unit storms hospital and kills Palestinian

An elite Israeli military force that operates undercover stormed the al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron and shot dead a 27-year-old Palestinian, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.Abdullah al-Shalaldeh was killed by five rounds fired early Thursday after 21 members of the elite unit - known as Mustaarabin - barged into the hospital room of his cousin, Azzam al-Shalaldeh, a ministry statement said.The commandos wanted to question Azzam, who required surgery after earlier being shot by Israeli security forces, and his cousin tried to prevent them from doing so when the Israelis opened fire.Following the killing of Abdullah, the Israeli force arrested Azzam who was recovering at the hospital.Dr Jihad Shawar, director of al-Ahli Hospital, told Al Jazeera the Israeli unit entered the facility at about 3am local time.One of the soldiers was reportedly disguised as a pregnant woman in labour.The commandos went to Azzam al-Shalaldeh's room to arrest him, Dr Shawar said. When his cousin Abdullah came out of the bathroom, he was shot multiple times in the head and body.Al Jazeera was unable to reach a spokesman from the Israeli police. Israel's internal security services confirmed the raid on the hospital, according to Agence-France Presse news agency.CCTV footage posted on Twitter showed the Mustaarabin commandos entering the hospital moments before the shooting.The Mustaarabin, a unit of Arabic-speaking fighters in the Israeli military, recently gained notoriety after a video surfaced of them infiltrating a Palestinian protest - wearing masks and speaking in Arabic.The video shows them turning on the Palestinians, shooting many of them at close range.The latest death of a Palestinian at the hands of the Israeli army reflects what rights groups consider to be an Israeli policy of extrajudicial killing .Undercover Israeli forces have also made a habit of raiding hospitals to arrest Palestinians being treated there .Recent violenceThe death toll of Palestinians killed by the Israeli military, as well as armed Israeli settlers, now stands at 81 since the beginning of October. During the past six weeks, 10 Israelis have also been killed by lone Palestinian attackers using knives and guns.Violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories surged in the beginning of October after the Israeli-backed storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.Considered holy to Muslims and Jews, the move into the compound by hardline Jews was supported by Israeli forces, who attacked Palestinian worshipers there.Palestinians have protested a plan to divide Al-Aqsa Mosque to include a section for Jewish worship, similar to what the Israeli government did with the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.The Israeli government has said it plans on maintaining the status quo, but Palestinians and other independent analysts insist that government support for Jewish groups working on the division of the mosque suggests otherwise.Source: Al Jazeera