Video shows Israeli forces shooting Palestinians dead moments after surrender | Israel
In the video showing Israel’s military raid on the West Bank, soldiers are seen summarily executing two Palestinians they had detained seconds earlier.
The shooting, which was witnessed by journalists close to the scene on Thursday evening, is under investigation by the justice ministry but has already been defended by Israel’s far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who declared that “terrorists must die”.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a statement acknowledging that two men were shot during a joint IDF operation with Israeli border police around Jenin. The statement stated that the attack “is being investigated by the commanders on the ground and will be conveyed to the relevant professional organizations.”
Images widely circulated in Israeli and Arab media show Israeli soldiers surrounding a storage facility in an urban area.
Troops use a mechanical digger to break down the garage-style door, then two men crawl out of the building under the damaged door and surrender on their hands and knees, lifting their shirts to show they are unarmed.
Uniformed men, described in Israeli media as Israeli border police officers, then approach them. A bald, bearded officer who is not wearing a helmet is seen taking over the task. He kicks the men while they are on the ground and then orders the prisoners back into the building under the damaged door.
Seconds later, as the two victims crawl away from their captors and reach the threshold of the building, five border police officers seen at the scene raise their assault rifles and the two detainees collapse to the ground.
“The execution documented today is the result of the rapid process of dehumanization of Palestinians and the complete abandonment of their lives by the Israeli regime,” said Yuli Novak, executive director of human rights group B’Tselem.
“There is no mechanism in Israel capable of stopping the killing of Palestinians or prosecuting those responsible.”
Despite hundreds of allegations, Israeli soldiers and police are hardly held responsible for the killing of Palestinians. B’Tselem stopped cooperating with the military review process in 2016, declaring it a “whitewash”.
What distinguishes Thursday’s killings in Jenin from others is the clarity of the video evidence. In the IDF’s statement about the incident, it was stated that the incident occurred during the operation of the IDF and border police in the Jenin region; where “forces were operating to capture wanted individuals who were carrying out terrorist activities, including launching explosives and shooting at security forces”.
The statement stated that “the wanted persons are linked to the terrorist network in the Jenin region.” “The forces entered the area, surrounded the structure where the suspects were located, and started the surrender procedure, which lasted several hours.”
The statement said, “Two suspects exited the building after engineering tools were used in the structure.” “After their exit, shots were opened at the suspects.”
The following statements were included in the statement: “The incident is being investigated by the commanders in the field and will be transferred to the relevant professional organizations.”
However, Ben-Gvir issued his own statement saying he “provided full support to members of the border police and IDF fighters who opened fire on wanted terrorists emerging from a building in Jenin.”
The minister, who was found guilty of inciting racism and supporting a terrorist organization in 2007, said: “The fighters acted exactly as they were expected to; the terrorists must die.”
