JENIN: Israeli security forces shot two Palestinian men on Thursday who appeared to be surrendering and unarmed during a raid in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestine TV news footage showed.
In the footage, the men are seen exiting a building surrounded by armed Israeli forces in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, lifting their shirts and lying on the ground in an apparent surrender. The forces then appeared to direct the men back inside the building before opening fire at close range.
A Reuters journalist in the vicinity saw the men leave the building, appearing to surrender, and later, after hearing shots fired, saw Israeli forces standing near what appeared to be a lifeless body.
The Palestinian health ministry said in a statement that the two men were killed in the shooting, identifying them as 26-year-old Montasir Abdullah and 37-year-old Yusuf Asasa.
The Israeli military and Israel Police issued a joint statement announcing that they had opened an investigation after forces opened fire toward suspects who had exited a building.
The statement did not give any reason for why the forces opened fire, nor say that the two men had lain on the ground before they were directed back inside the building and shot.
Jenin Governor Kamal Abu Al-Rub, speaking by phone, accused Israeli forces of carrying out a “cold-blooded execution” of two young men who he said were unarmed and had surrendered.
He said those who opened fire should face accountability, but expressed doubt that Israeli authorities would conduct a genuine investigation.
Israeli forces had been carrying out an operation in the Jenin area to apprehend individuals wanted for “terror activities, including hurling explosives and firing at security forces,” the Israeli military and police said in the joint statement.
The two men who were shot were wanted individuals who were affiliated with a “terror network in the area of Jenin,” the statement said. It did not specify what the two men were accused of nor disclose any evidence of their alleged link with a terror network.
According to the military and police, security forces had surrounded the building where the men were located before initiating a “surrender procedure” that lasted several hours.
“Following their exit, fire was directed toward the suspects,” the statement said, adding that the shooting was “under review by the commanders on the ground, and will be transferred to the relevant professional bodies.”
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir later issued a statement giving his “full backing” to the military and the police unit that was involved in the shooting.
“The fighters acted exactly as expected of them — terrorists should die!,” he wrote on X.
The Jenin raid marks the latest assault in a months-long Israeli campaign across northern West Bank cities. Israeli forces on Wednesday launched an operation on the nearby city of Tubas.
Palestinian militant group Hamas, which agreed to a ceasefire with Israel in Gaza last month, condemned the killing of the men in Jenin as an “execution” and urged the international community to intervene to stop what it called Israel’s “escalating field executions.”
The group did not claim the two men as members.
Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in West Bank who appeared to be unarmed
https://arab.news/rhgsj
Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in West Bank who appeared to be unarmed
- In footage, the men are seen exiting a building surrounded by armed Israeli forces in Jenin, lifting their shirts and lying on the ground in an apparent surrender
- The forces then appeared to direct the men back inside the building before opening fire at close range
A man detonates explosive belt during arrest attempt in Iraq, injuring 2 security members
- The raid was being conducted in the Al-Khaseem area in Qaim district that borders Syria
- No members of the security forces were killed
BAGHDAD: A man wearing an explosives belt blew himself up Friday while a security force was trying to arrest him in western Iraq near the Syrian border, killing himself and wounding two security members, an Iraqi security official said.
The raid was being conducted in the Al-Khaseem area in Qaim district that borders Syria, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The official added that “preliminary information” confirms that no members of the security forces were killed, while two personnel were injured and transferred for medical treatment.
Iraq’s National Security Agency said in a statement that its members besieged a hideout of a Daesh group security official and two of his bodyguards. One bodyguard ignited his explosives belt, killing him. It gave no further details.
Daesh once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq and declared a caliphate in 2014. The extremist group was defeated on the battlefield in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019 but its sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in both countries.
In December, two US service members and an American civilian were killed in an attack in Syria that the United States blamed on Daesh. The US carried out strikes on Syria days later in retaliation.
US and Iraqi authorities in January began transferring hundreds of the nearly 9,000 Daesh members held in jails run by the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria to Iraq, where Iraqi authorities plan to prosecute them.
