Israeli Forces Kill 3 Militants in West Bank Hospital Raid, Officials Say

Basil Ghazawi was paralyzed and had been treated in the hospital’s rehabilitation ward since late October, Dr. Nazzal said. The Israeli military said that he and Mohammed Ghazawi “hid inside the hospital.”

Basil Ghazawi was wounded in his spinal column by shrapnel from an Israeli drone strike on Oct. 25, Dr. Nazzal said. That could not be independently confirmed, but the Israeli military said at the time that a drone had fired on Palestinian gunmen who had hurled explosive devices and fired on Israeli soldiers in Jenin. It did not name Mr. Ghazawi.

Surging violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where millions of Palestinians live under Israeli military rule, has prompted fears of another front in the Middle East crisis spiraling out of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Since the war in Gaza began, at least 367 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and civilians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the highest toll in years, the United Nations said on Monday.

Israel has escalated its attempts to crack down on Palestinian militant activity in the West Bank since Hamas’s surprise Oct. 7 attack on Israel prompted full-blown war. More than 2,980 Palestinians have been arrested since the beginning of the war in near-daily raids, over 1,350 of them affiliated with Hamas, according to the Israeli military.

The covert raid within the hospital in Jenin raised questions under international law, experts said. Hospitals require special protection and respect under the laws of war, although that protection ceases if the compounds are used for military purposes, according to Eliav Lieblich, an expert on international law at Tel Aviv University.

If Mr. Ghazawi was indeed paralyzed and incapable of defending himself, he should not have been subject to attack under customary international law, Professor Lieblich added. “Whether this was the case here is a question of fact,” he said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross issued a statement of concern. “Under international humanitarian law, hospitals and medical patients should be respected and protected at all times,” the statement said, noting that the I.C.R.C. would “address this as part of its confidential dialogue with the concerned authorities.”