Israeli Soldiers Raid Jerusalem Hospital, Clash With Guards While Looking For Outpatient Files

The Israeli military raided a Jerusalem hospital Wednesday, searching for outpatient files and clashing with hospital guards, according to the Middle East Monitor. Soldiers were there the day prior searching through the same files.

Dr. Ali Al-Husseini, head of the union workers at Makassed Hospital, said that there were more than 40 soldiers who showed up to search the files. Though a confrontation broke out between the soldiers and hospital guards, there were no arrests made in relation to the facility’s raid.

The raid happened at a time of increased tension in Israel’s capital city, a place that has deep religious and cultural significance for many of the residents on both sides of the tension. The discord surrounds anger that the al-Aqsa mosque -- Islam’s holiest site outside of Saudi Arabia and honored by Judaism as well -- where Arabs have been turned away, while Jews have been allowed to visit in increasing numbers.

On Tuesday, soldiers with the Israeli army reportedly shot and killed three Palestinians who attacked the soldiers with knives. One of the soldiers was wounded in the exchange, which occurred after military members approached the Palestinians because they seemed to be acting suspiciously near a Jewish neighborhood.

They were not the first Palestinians to be killed in this latest wave of bloodshed, which is one of the most deadly since the 2014 Gaza War. Fifty-nine Palestinians have been shot by Israelis since Oct. 1, and Israeli forces say that 32 of those Palestinians were armed at the time of their death. A good portion of those deaths were teenagers, according to Reuters. The deaths mostly occurred at protest sites in the West Bank and in Gaza.

The violence has resulted in at least two polls of Israelis showing majority approval of dividing Jerusalem. Those Israelis also approve revoking tens of thousands of Palestinians’ residency statuses in the process.