Video footage from 27 November showed Israeli troops executing two unarmed Palestinian resistance fighters in the occupied West Bank, where Tel Aviv has recently escalated raids and attacks as part of a new operation against resistance factions in the territory.
The two men who were executed were killed as they were surrendering themselves to the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Thursday, the footage showed. In the video, the two lift up their shirts and hold their hands up to show they are unarmed.
An Israeli soldier is seen kicking one of the Palestinians in the footage. Both are then lined up and shot dead at the entrance of the storage facility, where they were initially surrounded by the Israeli army.
After the execution, an army bulldozer is seen demolishing the facility over their bodies.
The two were members of the Jenin Brigade of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement’s Quds Brigades. They were killed as they surrendered following a clash with Israeli troops.
They have been identified as 37-year-old commander Yusuf Ali Asasa and 26-year-old fighter Al-Muntasir Billah Mahmoud Abdullah.
The Quds Brigades released a statement mourning the resistance members, “who ascended to the highest ranks after a journey filled with jihad and resistance, following a field execution carried out by the Nazi enemy army … after their ammunition ran out during an armed clash with enemy forces that besieged them.”
The Israeli army admitted in its own statement that the two men were shot during a joint operation by the military and border police around Jenin city.
It added that the shooting “is under review by the commanders on the ground and will be transferred to the relevant professional bodies.”
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has been pushing the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners, defended the execution, saying that “terrorists must die.”
“We must put an end to investigations targeting our soldiers who open fire on terrorists,” the minister added.
Israeli Army Radio reported that three soldiers from the undercover ‘Mista’arvim’ unit are being investigated.
“The extrajudicial killing of two unarmed Palestinians in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, who posed no threat, constitutes another link in the chain of extrajudicial killings targeting Palestinians throughout occupied Palestinian territory. This is a grave violation of international humanitarian law … amounting to war crimes that warrant international criminal prosecution,” said Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
Hellbound and Down 