Israeli troops kill two Palestinians in Jenin as they try to surrender | Israeli-Palestinian conflict News

Israeli soldiers shot dead two Palestinian men during a raid in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin as the two tried to surrender to the army, according to video footage and witness accounts from the scene.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said journalists in Jenin reported Thursday that the two men had “lifted up their shirts, showing they were unarmed” before the army ordered them to return to a building in which they had been held.

“And then they were shot. They were executed,” Odeh said from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement, the Israeli military said its troops pursued wanted individuals who were “affiliated with a terrorist network” in the Jenin area and “began a surrender procedure that lasted several hours.”

After the men exited the building, “shots were directed toward the suspects,” the statement said. “The incident is being reviewed by commanders on the ground and will be escalated to the relevant professional bodies.”

But Odeh noted that, historically, Israeli reviews of Palestinian killings “do not usually end in indictments or criminal investigations.”

Mustafa Barghouti, head of the Palestinian National Initiative, a political party, condemned the deadly Jenin shootings as a “shocking crime.”

“The Israeli army executed two Palestinians after they surrendered and were arrested in Jenin, in front of the cameras,” he wrote on X. “How can anyone remain silent about Israeli war crimes?

Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir welcomed the killings, writing on social media that Israeli forces “acted exactly as expected: the terrorists must die!” »

Worsening violence

The incident comes as Israel deployed attack helicopters and drones in raids in the northern West Bank for the second day in a row, as a crackdown on Palestinians in the occupied territory has intensified for months.

Israeli troops continued to besiege large swathes of the northeastern Tubas governorate on Thursday, a day after launching a large-scale military operation in the area.

The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that at least 25 Palestinians have been injured and 100 others arrested since the Israeli incursion began on Wednesday.

Israel said the operation was aimed at eliminating Palestinian armed groups, but residents say the army carried out indiscriminate attacks on civilians, blocked journalists and ambulances and damaged infrastructure.

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have faced a surge in violence from the Israeli military and settlers amid Israel’s war on Gaza, which United Nations experts and leading human rights groups have described as genocide.

The northern West Bank has been particularly hard hit, with around 32,000 residents of several refugee camps in the area forced from their homes since January and prevented by Israel from returning.

Last week, Human Rights Watch said the forced expulsion of Palestinians from refugee camps in Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“While global attention is focused on Gaza, Israeli forces have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank that should be investigated and prosecuted,” an HRW official said in a statement.

Violence is part of the ‘cruel apartheid system’

On Thursday evening, Al Jazeera’s Odeh noted that the number of daily Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank had doubled over the past two years. “There are an average of 47 Israeli raids against Palestinian communities every day,” she said.

Dozens of Palestinians, including an 85-year-old man, were beaten by Israeli soldiers during this week’s military assault, Odeh added.

“[This raid] is more serious than other raids taking place in the occupied West Bank. It’s certainly the Israeli military flexing its muscles,” she said. “What we’re seeing is an escalation in the level of violence inflicted on civilians.”

A representative of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) condemned the latest violence, stressing that Israel continues to issue demolition orders in the northern West Bank despite “incessant” destruction over the past year.

Twelve buildings are expected to be demolished in the Jenin refugee camp later this week, Roland Friedrich, UNRWA’s West Bank affairs director, said in a social media post. Eleven other buildings are expected to be partially demolished.

“This development marks the next episode of ongoing efforts to reorganize the topography of refugee camps in the north of the country. [West Bank]” Friedrich wrote on X, pointing out that more than 200 buildings were under demolition orders in the camp since February.

“This systematic destruction goes against fundamental principles of international law and only serves to strengthen the control of Israeli forces over the camps in the long term,” he said.

Amnesty International also described the intensification of Israeli military operations as part of Israel’s “cruel system of apartheid against the Palestinians” in the occupied territory.

“The international community must prevent an escalation of attacks against civilians in the West Bank and take immediate steps to end Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territory in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza,” the group said.