Israeli forces kill Palestinian men in West Bank after they appear to surrender : NPR
This image from a Palestine TV video shows two Palestinian men kneeling on the ground in front of Israeli forces shortly before being shot dead during a military operation in Jenin, West Bank, Thursday, November 27, 2025.
AP/Palestine TV
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AP/Palestine TV
JERUSALEM — Israeli forces killed two Palestinian men in the occupied West Bank on Thursday after they appeared to surrender to troops, sparking Palestinian accusations that the men were executed “in cold blood.” The Israeli military said it was investigating.
The killings, captured in videos broadcast on two Arab television channels, come as Israel continues its latest offensive in the West Bank, where the army has intensified its activities over the past two years. Israel says it is cracking down on activists, but Palestinians and rights groups accuse Israel of using excessive force and say dozens of unarmed civilians have been killed.
Israel is fighting on multiple fronts as a fragile ceasefire advances in Gaza. Israel carried out a new series of airstrikes on suspected Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon on Thursday. Ongoing conflicts in the region have fueled fears that the unrest could spill over and jeopardize the fragile truce in Gaza.
A Palestinian-American teenager detained in Israel for nine months was also released Thursday evening. The 16-year-old appeared visibly thin and was embraced by his crying family.
Israeli forces accused of executing Palestinians in West Bank
The Israeli army and national police announced that they had opened an investigation Thursday into the deaths of the two men, shot dead by members of the Border Police, a special unit that often operates alongside the Israeli army.
In a video broadcast without sound on Palestine TV, the two men emerge from a garage raising their hands and lifting their shirts to show they are not carrying explosives. They are knocked to the ground and kicked by one of the police officers. They are then returned to the garage. In a video broadcast by Egyptian television channel Al-Ghad, the men are ordered to return to the garage entrance. While they are on the ground and surrounded by troops, gunshots are heard and the men collapse, seemingly lifeless. At least one soldier is seen firing his weapon.
In a statement, the Israeli military said the two men were wanted militants in the northern city of Jenin who threw explosives and opened fire on troops.
He said that after the men surrendered and exited a building, “shots were directed at the suspects.” It said the incident was “under review” and would be referred “to the relevant professional bodies”.
Palestinians and human rights groups say such investigations yield few results and Israeli troops are rarely prosecuted.
Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the national police, praised Israeli forces, saying they had acted “exactly as we expect them to do: the terrorists must die!” »
In Ramallah, the Palestinian prime minister’s office accused Israel of executing the men “in cold blood.” He called the shooting “a pure and simple extrajudicial execution, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.”
Palestinian authorities identified the men as Al-Muntasir Abdullah, 26, and Yousef Asasa, 37, and said Israel took their bodies.
The incident is reminiscent of the case of Elor Azaria – a soldier convicted of manslaughter in 2017 for fatally shooting an already wounded Palestinian attacker. This affair deeply divided the nation, with nationalist politicians defending the soldier. Azaria was released from prison after serving a nine-month sentence.
Israeli soldiers are seen during a military raid in the West Bank town of Tubas, Wednesday, November 26, 2025.
Majdi Mohammed/AP
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Majdi Mohammed/AP
Climbing in the West Bank
The shooting was part of a larger operation in a region in the northeastern West Bank. The Israeli army has arrested more than 100 people since Tuesday in the town of Tubas, according to Abdullah al-Zaghari, spokesman for the advocacy group Palestinian Prisoners Club.
The military said the operation was a response to “attempts to establish terrorist strongholds and build terrorist infrastructure in the region.” On November 19, Palestinian attackers stabbed an Israeli to death and injured three others at a West Bank intersection before being shot dead by troops.
The Israeli army has intensified its military operations in the West Bank since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.
The latest operation comes against a backdrop of rising violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Israeli leaders have downplayed the settler attacks as the work of a small minority. But Palestinians say attacks are frequent, often close to Israeli troops, and settlers are rarely punished.
Strikes in Lebanon before Pope’s visit
The Israeli Air Force carried out a new series of strikes in parts of southern Lebanon on Thursday. Israel says its ongoing strikes are aimed at preventing Hezbollah from rebuilding after a devastating war last year.
But the United Nations said Tuesday that Israel has killed at least 127 civilians, including children, in its strikes on Lebanon since the ceasefire took effect a year ago. Things escalated earlier this week with a rare strike in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, killing Hezbollah’s chief of staff.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Thursday criticized Hezbollah for failing to disarm the group, saying the Iran-backed militants failed to deter Israeli airstrikes, protect the Lebanese people or even safeguard the lives of its own leaders.
Pope Leo
American teenager released from Israeli prison
Mohammed Ibrahim, an American teenager detained in Israel for nine months, was released Thursday evening and immediately hospitalized, his uncle told the AP.
Visibly thin, with a shaved head and still dressed in a gray jumpsuit, Ibrahim wiped away tears as he was embraced by family members shortly after his release in videos taken by the family. His father, Zaher Ibrahim, embraced his son and began to cry.
“He is thin and pale, his eyes are sunken and he still has signs of scabies,” said Zeyad Kadur, the uncle.
The teenager was visiting family in the West Bank with his parents when he was arrested at night at the family home for allegedly throwing rocks at Israeli settlers in the West Bank, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations and several members of Congress. In a sworn statement, Mohammed said he only confessed to throwing stones after being threatened with beatings by interrogators.
His family and lawyers said he was held in poor conditions, suffered from scabies and lost weight in prison.
