Israeli military kills two men in West Bank following ‘surrender procedure’
By Ibrahim Dahman, Eugenia Yosef, Caitlin Danaher, CNN
(CNN) — Israeli authorities are reviewing an incident in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, in which soldiers shot two people following a “surrender procedure,” according to a joint statement by a military spokesperson and Israel Police.
The Palestinian Authority confirmed their deaths, with the West Bank’s General Authority for Civil Affairs identifying the men as 26-year-old Al-Muntasir Mahmoud Qassem Abdullah and 37-year-old Youssef Ali Youssef Asasa.
It also condemned the deadly shooting as “a fully-fledged war crime and a flagrant violation of all international laws, conventions, norms, and humanitarian values.”
According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the two individuals were wanted by authorities for alleged terror activities.
The IDF said in the joint statement that it had been operating alongside border police to arrest two individuals who belonged to a “terrorist organization operating in Jenin,” and accused them of throwing explosive devices and gunfire at security forces.
The IDF added that the “surrender procedure” lasted several hours, with the men exiting the building after an engineering vehicle was used. “After they exited the building, gunfire was carried out at the wanted individuals,” the IDF said in a joint statement with the Israel Police.
Video of the incident shared on social media showed two men emerging from a building with their hands raised above their heads in apparent surrender. They are surrounded by what appear to be Israeli soldiers.
The two men are later seen on the floor in front of the building’s entrance before multiple rounds of gunfire are heard. The bodies of at least one of the men could then be seen lying on the ground, according to the video.
“The incident is currently under investigation by field commanders and will be transferred for review by the relevant authorities,” the IDF statement said.
The Israeli military launched a wide-scale military operation on Wednesday in the West Bank, with Israeli forces searching “over 220 sites, questioned dozens and arresting “several wanted individuals,” per an earlier IDF statement.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir praised the Israeli military and police following the incident.
“I fully back the Border Police fighters and IDF soldiers who fired at wanted terrorists who came out of a building in Jenin. The fighters acted exactly as expected of them – terrorists must die!,” he wrote on social media.
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CNN’s Mostafa Salem contributed reporting.
