Source: THE AS­SO­CI­AT­ED PRESS

Is­raeli forces have killed three Pales­tin­ian mil­i­tants in a raid on a hos­pi­tal in the oc­cu­pied West Bank, where vi­o­lence has surged since the out­break of the war in the Gaza Strip.

The Is­raeli mil­i­tary said forces en­tered the Ibn Sina hos­pi­tal in the north­ern city of Jenin ear­ly Tues­day and shot the three men, who Hamas claimed as mem­bers. The mil­i­tary said the men were us­ing the hos­pi­tal as a hide­out and that at least one was plan­ning an at­tack.

The Pales­tin­ian Health Min­istry said the Is­raeli forces opened fire in­side the hos­pi­tal’s wards and called on the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to stop Is­raeli op­er­a­tions in hos­pi­tals.

Cease-fire talks to stop the fight­ing in Gaza are on­go­ing, but Is­rael has said “ sig­nif­i­cant gaps ” re­main in any po­ten­tial agree­ment.

Is­rael’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 26,000 Pales­tini­ans, most of them women and mi­nors, ac­cord­ing to the Health Min­istry in the Hamas-ruled ter­ri­to­ry. The min­istry does not dif­fer­en­ti­ate be­tween civil­ian and com­bat­ant deaths.

The Oct. 7 at­tack in south­ern Is­rael that sparked the war killed 1,200 peo­ple, most­ly civil­ians, and about 250 peo­ple were tak­en hostage, ac­cord­ing to Is­raeli au­thor­i­ties. —RA­MAL­LAH, West Bank (AP)

Journalists gather outside of Ibn Sina Hospital following a deadly Israeli military raid in the West Bank town of Jenin, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024. Armed Israeli undercover forces disguised as women and medical workers stormed the hospital on Tuesday, killing a few Palestinian militants. The Palestinian Health Ministry condemned the incursion on a hospital, where the military said the militants were hiding out. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Majdi Mohammed

UN En­voy is in Is­rael to in­ves­ti­gate re­port­ed sex­u­al as­saults from Hamas at­tack

JERUSALEM – The U.N.’s spe­cial rep­re­sen­ta­tive on sex­u­al vi­o­lence has be­gun a week­long vis­it to Is­rael to look in­to re­ports of sex­u­al as­saults com­mit­ted by Hamas mil­i­tants dur­ing the Oct. 7 at­tack that trig­gered Is­rael’s war in Gaza.

Prami­la Pat­ten kicked off her vis­it on Mon­day by meet­ing with Is­raeli diplo­mats and Is­rael’s pres­i­dent, Is­sac Her­zog, and his wife Michal. Pat­ten en­cour­aged vic­tims to come for­ward to meet with her del­e­ga­tion.

“We re­al­ly want to en­sure that you have jus­tice so that we put an end to this heinous act,” Pat­ten said dur­ing the meet­ing, ac­cord­ing to Her­zog’s of­fice.

Re­ports have emerged that sex­u­al as­saults were part of the dead­ly ram­page by mil­i­tants from Hamas and oth­er Gaza groups who killed about 1,200 peo­ple, most of them civil­ians, and took more than 250 hostages from south­ern Is­rael.

Jew­ish tra­di­tion calls for the dead to be buried as soon as pos­si­ble, and in the chaos of the be­gin­ning of the war, few au­top­sies were con­duct­ed, so foren­sic ev­i­dence of rape has been dif­fi­cult to col­lect.

Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Ne­tanyahu has con­demned women’s rights or­ga­ni­za­tions, in­clud­ing the Unit­ed Na­tions, for not im­me­di­ate­ly con­demn­ing the re­ports of sex­u­al as­sault.

Pat­ten is al­so set to meet with rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Pales­tin­ian Au­thor­i­ty, Is­raeli se­cu­ri­ty forces, lo­cal or­ga­ni­za­tions, wit­ness­es, and re­leased hostages dur­ing her vis­it.