Israeli forces on Thursday killed a pair of Palestinian men in the occupied West Bank after they appeared to surrender to troops, drawing Palestinian accusations that the men were executed “in cold blood.” The Israeli military said it was investigating.
The killings, captured in videos shown on two Arab TV stations, came as Israel pressed ahead with its latest offensive in the West Bank, where the army has stepped up its activities over the past two years. Israel says it is cracking down on militants, but Palestinians and rights groups accuse Israel of using excessive force and say dozens of unarmed civilians have been killed.
Israel has been fighting on a number of fronts as a shaky ceasefire in Gaza moves forward. On Thursday, Israel carried out another round of airstrikes on suspected Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon. Ongoing conflicts in the region have fueled concerns that unrest could spill over and undermine the fragile truce in Gaza.
A Palestinian-American teenager held in Israeli detention for nine months was also released on Thursday night. The 16-year-old emerged visibly thin and was embraced by his crying family.
Israeli forces accused of executing Palestinian men in West Bank
The Israeli military and national police announced they were opening an investigation into the deaths Thursday of the two men, who were shot by members of the border police, a special unit that often operates alongside the Israeli military.
In a video shown on Palestine TV, which has no sound, the two men come out of a garage holding their hands up and lifting their shirts to show they are not carrying explosives. They are ordered to the ground and kicked by one of the policemen. They are then ordered back to the garage. In a video shown by Egyptian TV station Al-Ghad, the men are ordered back to the entrance of the garage. As they are on the ground and surrounded by troops, gunshots are heard and the men slump down, apparently 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 town of Jenin who had thrown explosives and opened fire at troops.
It said that after the men surrendered and exited a building, “fire was directed toward 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.
Israel's far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the national police, praised the Israeli forces, saying they had acted “exactly as they are expected to — terrorists must die!”
In Ramallah, the Palestinian prime minister’s office accused Israel of executing the men “in cold blood.” It called the shooting “an outright extrajudicial killing in blatant violation of international humanitarian law.”
Palestinian authorities identified the men as Al-Muntasir Abdullah, 26, and Yousef Asasa, 37, and said Israel had taken away their bodies.
The incident was reminiscent of the case of Elor Azaria — a soldier convicted of manslaughter in 2017 for fatally shooting an already wounded Palestinian attacker. That case deeply divided the nation, with nationalistic politicians defending the soldier. Azaria was released early from prison after serving a nine-month sentence.
Escalation in the West Bank
The shooting is part of a larger operation in a northeastern region of the West Bank. Israel's military has detained 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 has said the operation was a response to “attempts to establish terrorist strongholds and construction of terror infrastructures in the area.” On Nov. 19, Palestinian attackers stabbed an Israeli to death and wounded three more at a West Bank intersection before being shot down by troops.
Israel's military has scaled up military operations in the West Bank since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack, which triggered the war in Gaza.
The latest operation comes amid a rising tide of Israeli settler violence in the West Bank. Israeli leaders have played down the settler attacks as the work of a small minority. But Palestinians say the attacks are frequent, often in close proximity to Israeli troops, and the settlers are rarely punished.
Strikes on Lebanon ahead of the pope’s visit
Israel’s air force carried out another 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 on Tuesday said Israel had killed at least 127 civilians, including children, in its strikes on Lebanon since the ceasefire came into effect one year ago. Things escalated earlier this week with a rare strike in Lebanon’s capital of Beirut, killing Hezbollah’s chief of staff.
On Thursday, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam criticized Hezbollah for not disarming in a rare rebuke of the group, saying the Iran-backed militants have failed to deter Israeli airstrikes, protect the Lebanese people or even safeguard the lives of its own leaders.
Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit the country on Sunday, when he will meet the crisis-hit nation’s political and religious leaders.
