Shocking footage seen by multiple human rights monitors shows two unarmed Palestinian men emerging from a building in Jenin on Thursday with their hands and shirts up in clear surrender before Israeli forces shoot them dead at point-blank range.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health named the victims as Al-Muntashir Billa Mahmoud Qassem Abdullah, 26, and Yousef Ali Youssef Asassa, 37.
Israeli forces immediately seized and seized their bodies, which has repeatedly prevented independent forensic examinations.
The U.N. human rights office condemned the killing as a “brazen summary execution” and said it fitted an “appalling pattern” of unlawful lethal force. Press Secretary Jeremy Lawrence said the footage was evidence of a serious breach of international law.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the unit, praised the X’s men, saying they had “acted as expected” and declared: “The terrorists must die.”
The Palestinian Authority labeled the incident a “brutal war crime,” but Hamas claimed it was part of a planned extermination operation in the occupied territories.
Thursday’s executions came amid Israel’s sharpest escalation in the West Bank since Oct. 7, 2023, with more than 1,000 Palestinians killed and thousands captured.
Approximately 60 people, many of them children and former prisoners, have been arrested in recent days in the Tubas department, and homes and infrastructure have been extensively destroyed.
In the Jenin refugee camp, military bulldozers have begun leveling buildings, but Save the Children reports that the entire community has been confined indoors and more than 700 children have been denied access to schooling and protection services.
Investigations within the Israeli military into soldiers’ misconduct have rarely resulted in prosecutions, reinforcing what many observers call a culture of impunity.