IDF may have violated international law in West Bank hospital raid, experts say

The IDF may have violated international law in the raid they conducted inside a hospital in the West Bank that resulted in three deaths, several experts told ABC News.

The Israel Defense Forces may have violated international law in the raid they conducted inside a hospital in the West Bank that resulted in the death of three Palestinian men both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad claimed as members, several experts told ABC News.

Members of the IDF disguised themselves as doctors and patients to infiltrate the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin on Monday and killed three Palestinian men whom Hamas and the Islamic Jihad both claimed as members, Dr. Wisam Sebehat, general director of the Palestinian Health Ministry in Jenin, told ABC News.

One IDF member had a wheelchair, two carried a doll in a baby carrier, several wore nurses' clothing, another wore doctors' clothing and several others were dressed in civilian clothing, Sebehat said. Doctors and patients are granted "protected status" in armed conflict under the Geneva Convention.

The experts cautioned that ultimately the International Criminal Court is the body that can determine if international law was violated during the raid, but they pointed to elements of the Rome Statute, the governing treaty of the ICC, and the study on the rules of customary international humanitarian law the IDF may have violated in conducting the raid. The United States, along with China, India, Russia -- about 40 countries total -- did not sign the Rome Statute and are not party to the ICC, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.