Video shows Israeli soldiers executing two Palestinians as they surrender in West Bank raid, rights group says

The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem shared a video on Thursday that it says shows Israeli soldiers executing two Palestinian men who had surrendered during a raid in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The video, which B’Tselem attributes to Palestine TV and which News themezone has not independently verified, appears to show Israeli soldiers surrounding a garage-style door on a building as two men emerge with their hands in the air. The men can be seen lifting their shirts and kneeling on the ground as the soldiers approach.

One of the soldiers kicks one of the men before they both begin to return to the building through the large open door, apparently following the soldiers’ orders. Gunshots are then heard and one of the men still visible at the door can be seen collapsing to the ground.

B’Tselem identified the two men as Yusef ‘Asa’sah, 39, and al-Muntaser bel-lah ‘Abdallah, 26, who the group said were wanted by the Israel Defense Forces.

The IDF on Thursday acknowledged an operation to detain wanted people in Jenin and said the men had “carried out terrorist activities, including throwing explosives and shooting at security forces.”

“Forces entered the area, surrounded the structure in which the suspects were located, and began a surrender procedure that lasted several hours. After the use of engineering tools on the structure, the two suspects exited. Following their exit, fire was directed toward the suspects,” the Israeli military said in a statement shared with News themezone. “The incident is being reviewed by commanders on the ground and will be transferred to the relevant professional bodies.”

Israeli security forces have been accused on many occasions since the war in Gaza was sparked by the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, of using excessive, often lethal, force against Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank.

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the national police, praised Israeli forces after the release of video showing Thursday’s incident, saying they acted “exactly as they are expected to: terrorists must die!”

B’Tselem executive director Yuli Novak said the killings were the result of “an accelerated process of dehumanization of Palestinians and the complete abandonment of their lives by the Israeli regime.”

In Ramallah, the West Bank capital, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas’s office issued a statement accusing Israel of executing the two men “in cold blood,” criticizing the shooting as “an absolute extrajudicial execution in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.”

The shooting came amid a broader operation in the northeastern West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel’s military for decades. The operation has detained more than 100 people since Tuesday in the city of Tubas alone, according to Abdullah al-Zaghari, spokesman for the Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group.

The IDF has called the ongoing operation a response to “attempts to establish terrorist strongholds and the construction of terrorist infrastructure in the area.”

On November 19, Palestinian attackers stabbed an Israeli to death and wounded three others at a West Bank intersection before being shot by security forces.

The violence has burned in the West Bankthe larger of the two Palestinian territories, since the war in Gaza began, and Israeli incursions have continued there despite the ceasefire in Gaza.

According to B’Tselem, Israeli security forces and settlers More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 2023.