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Israeli military forces shot and killed two Palestinian men in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Thursday evening, despite the pair appearing to surrender, according to footage circulated on social media and reports from local and international sources.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the deceased as 26-year-old Al-Muntasir Billah Mahmud Abdullah and 37-year-old Yussef Ali Asa'sa. The ministry said their bodies are currently being withheld by Israeli forces.
A widely shared video shows the two men walking toward Israeli soldiers with their hands raised before shots are fired at close range. The men then collapse to the ground. The footage was verified and partially filmed and was aired by several television networks, including Israeli outlets.
The killings took place in Jenin’s Jabal Abu Dhahir neighborhood during a large-scale Israeli raid. Local sources said the army blocked ambulances from reaching the men, a claim echoed by Jenin Governor Kamal Abu al-Rub, who stated the men had surrendered before being shot.
In a joint statement, the Israeli army and police said they had launched an internal review of the incident. According to their account, security forces had surrounded a building where the two men were hiding, accusing them of prior attacks involving explosives and gunfire. After hours of siege and the use of "engineering tools" on the building, the two suspects exited, after which the army said "fire was directed toward the suspects."
The military added that the incident would be examined by field commanders and forwarded to relevant authorities for further assessment.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the incident as a “brutal field execution” and a “deliberate Israeli war crime,” calling on the international community to implement protective mechanisms for Palestinians. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry, based in Ramallah, accused the Israeli army of "cold-blooded execution" and urged immediate international intervention.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir publicly supported the soldiers involved, stating on X (formerly Twitter): "Terrorists must die." He further praised the forces, asserting they acted "exactly as expected" by targeting "wanted terrorists" who had emerged from a building in Jenin.
Thursday’s deaths occurred amid an expanded Israeli military campaign in the northern West Bank, particularly in the Jenin and Tubas regions. The escalation coincides with ongoing hostilities in Gaza, where nearly 70,000 people have been killed since the conflict began two years ago, according to official Palestinian figures.
In the West Bank, over 1,080 Palestinians have been killed and approximately 11,000 injured in military raids and settler attacks since the start of the war in Gaza. More than 20,500 individuals have reportedly been detained.
On the same evening, an off-duty Israeli soldier shot and injured a Palestinian near a military checkpoint south of East Jerusalem. According to police reports, the soldier opened fire after disembarking from a public bus. The injured Palestinian was reported to be in critical condition by Israeli broadcaster KAN.
The International Court of Justice previously ruled in July that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Separately, the Israeli military launched airstrikes on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, citing threats to national security despite an existing ceasefire agreement from November 2024. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam described the current state of hostilities as "a one-sided war of attrition that is escalating."
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said Israel has committed over 10,000 air and ground violations since the November 2024 ceasefire with Hezbollah.
The Israeli military stated that over the past year it has conducted around 1,200 "targeted activities" against Hezbollah and Palestinian groups, claiming to have killed more than 370 combatants.
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