Palestinian militants in the West Bank said they had killed two men accused of collaborating with Israeli authorities and hung their bodies up as a warning.
A statement from the Tulkaram Brigades, a group based in the West Bank city of Tulkaram that is associated with the Fatah faction, said there was "no immunity for any informant or traitor".
"We are on the lookout for him and we will hold him accountable," it said, referring to any such person.
Footage shared on the Tulkaram Brigades Telegram channel showed a man apparently confessing to working with Israeli security services and providing details of his activities.
Other footage, which could not be verified by Reuters, showed two dead bodies and bodies hung from a wall and an electricity pylon in front of angry crowds.
The Tulkaram Brigades statement said anyone who had been working with Israeli security services had until Dec. 5 to come forward and repent.
The Independent Commission for Human Rights, a Palestinian rights group, issued a statement criticizing extrajudicial killings but said Israeli authorities were responsible for recruiting Palestinian agents.
There was no comment from the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited governance in the West Bank, and no immediate comment from the Israeli security services.
A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Palestinian security forces were aware of the incident. The public prosecutor’s office said it would have details in the coming days about a police investigation into the killings.
The family of one of the accused informers sought to distance itself in a statement Saturday, calling its disgraced relative a "malicious finger that we have cut off without regret."
"We affirm our complete innocence," the family added, "and we won’t allow anyone to blame us for his guilt."
Purported confession videos surfaced online showing the two men, worn out, their eyes downcast, describing their recent interactions with Israeli intelligence officials who they said paid them thousands of dollars for information.
Israel's Shin Bet security service has a long history of pressuring Palestinians to become informers, including by blackmail or by promising work or entry permits for Israel. The Shin Bet did not respond to a request for comment on the killings.
Israeli media claimed the executioners were Hamas gunmen.
The latest incident provided further signs of the growing tension in the occupied West Bank, which has seen a surge in violence since the start of the Gaza war as Israeli military raids have intensified.
Public execution-style killings of Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel have been rare in recent years, but they were more common during the years of the Second Intifada uprising two decades ago.
The West Bank had already been experiencing the highest levels of unrest in decades during the 18 months preceding the attack, but the assault on Israel by Hamas gunmen on Oct. 7 and the subsequent bombardment of Gaza by Israeli forces has lifted the pressure to new levels.
Over 230 Palestinian have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank in the past seven weeks alone, most of them during Israeli army raids targeting militants.
On Saturday, Israeli forces raided the northern Palestinian town of Qabatiya seeking to arrest militants, sparking a firefight and killing a locally prominent doctor, 25-year-old Shamekh Abu al-Rub, Palestinian health officials said. Abu al-Rub was the son of Kamal Abu al-Rub, governor of the Palestinian city of Jenin.
Meanwhile, Israel’s war on Gaza appears to have increased Hamas’s popularity in the West Bank.
As hostages were released in a swap between the armed group and Israel, relatives of the freed detainees chanted slogans in support of Hamas.
Hamas on Saturday released 17 hostages, including 13 Israelis, from captivity in the Gaza Strip, while Israel freed 39 Palestinian prisoners in the latest stage of a four-day ceasefire in the conflict.
Hamas has been semi-banned on the West Bank in recent years. Its members have often feared Israeli prosecution and they also feared clashing with the PA, which had banned public Hamas activities.
Effectively, Hamas’ October 7 operation against Israel has given the movement a boost in the West Bank. That was even before the hostage swap took place.
A Hamas source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the current war against it in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as all past wars, have failed in "breaking Hamas. Rather the opposite has happened."
"Hamas is rooted" in the Palestinian people, he stressed.
Moreover, he stated that Hamas had never abandoned its role in the West Bank in spite of the open war against it.
"It will never abandon it, but it will only consolidate its presence," he added.
