Israeli forces kill two Palestinians after they appear to surrender in Jenin, West Bank
Two of the armed Israelis kick the Palestinians and appear to ask them to return to the building. As the Palestinian men re-enter the building – one is in a sitting position and the other is out of sight in the building’s dark interior – Israeli security forces open fire, the bullets piercing the seated man’s body and kicking up dust.
A nearby excavator demolishes the metal entrance to the building, and one of the Israelis is seen pulling what appears to be a body from the rubble.
The IDF and Israeli police issued a joint statement on the shooting Thursday, saying the operation targeted “individuals who had carried out terrorist activities, including throwing explosives and shooting at security forces” and were part of a “terrorist network in the Jenin area.”
“Forces entered the area, surrounded the structure in which the suspects were located and initiated a surrender procedure which lasted several hours. Following the use of engineering tools on the structure, the two suspects came out,” the statement said. “After their exit, the shots were directed towards the suspects.”
The statement did not provide any information on why security forces started shooting.
“The incident is being reviewed by field commanders and will be escalated to the appropriate professional bodies,” the statement said.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on X that the security forces had his “full support.”
“The fighters acted exactly as was expected of them: the terrorists should die!” » he wrote.
The two men killed were Montasir Abdullah, 26, and Yusuf Asasa, 37, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
“We are appalled by the brazen killing by Israeli border police yesterday of two Palestinian men in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, in another apparent summary execution,” UN human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said at a press briefing in Geneva.
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.”
Hamas, which has not claimed the two men as members, called the assassination an “execution.”
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said earlier this month that settlers staged at least 264 attacks against Palestinians in October – the highest monthly tally since the U.N. began tracking incidents in 2006.
