West Bank: Palestinian shot dead by undercover Israeli commando in Hebron hospital raid

A Palestinian man has been killed by undercover Israeli agents that stormed a West Bank hospital to arrest an injured suspect. Israeli troops raided the Al-Ahli hospital in Hebron overnight in a bid to detain Azzam Shalaldeh a Palestinian accused of stabbing an Israeli man last month.

During the operation they shot dead Shalaldeh's cousin Abdullah Shalalded as he attempted to prevent his relative be taken away from his hospital bed into custody. The medical centre director, Jihad Shawar, told AP the 27-year-old was gunned down as he came out from a bathroom.

The Palestinian health ministry said the killing within hospital grounds was evidence of Israel's disregard of international and humanitarian conventions. Abdullah Shalalded was shot five times, suffering gun wounds at the head, chest and limbs, the ministry said.

The raid was carried out by officers from Israel's intelligence agency Shin Bet, the Israeli Defence Forces, and Border Police troops that entered via the hospital's front gate by posing as Palestinians, The Times of Israel reported.

A group of men pushing a wheelchair can be seen advancing through a hospital corridor in security camera footage purportedly showing the incident that was uploaded online.

The target of the operation, Shalaldeh, 20, is accused of moderately wounding a 58-year-old man in a stab-attack near the settlement of Metzad in the occupied West Bank last month. He was shot and wounded by his victim but managed to flee from the scene and was being treated in Hebron.

The incident was one of a series that has sent tensions running high in the region. More than 90 people from both sides have been killed in the wave of violence that started in mid-September and is showing no signs of abating.