JENIN: The UN human rights office said on Friday it was appalled by the killing of two Palestinian men by Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank, saying the incident appeared to amount to summary executions.
"We're appalled by the brazen killing by Israeli border police yesterday of two Palestinian men in Jenin in the occupied West Bank in yet another apparent summary execution", Jeremy Laurence told a UN briefing in Geneva.
The two men killed on Thursday appeared to be surrendering and unarmed during a raid in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestine TV news footage showed.
The Israeli military and police issued a joint statement announcing that they had opened an investigation after forces opened fire towards suspects who had exited a building.
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 terrorist network. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who was granted an expanded security portfolio in 2022 that included responsibility for the Border Police in the occupied West Bank, issued a statement giving his "full backing" to the military and the police unit involved in the shooting.
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 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.
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.
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. — Reuters
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