UN decries summary execution of Palestinians in West Bank

GENEVA: The United Nations said Friday that the killing of two Palestinians, shot dead in the West Bank while seemingly surrendering to Israeli forces, was an “apparent summary execution”.

A Palestinian man carries his belongings as he evacuates his home during an Israeli army raid on the outskirts of the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

“We are appalled at the brazen killing by Israeli border police yesterday of two Palestinian men in Jenin,” UN rights office spokesman Jeremy Laurence told reporters in Geneva, calling the incident “yet another apparent summary execution”.

He said UN rights chief Volker Turk was calling for “independent, prompt, and effective investigations into the killings of Palestinians,” and for those responsible for killings and other violations in the West Bank to “be held fully to account”.

Video footage published on Thursday showed Israeli occupation soldiers executing two Palestinian men in the Jabal Abu Dhahir neighbourhood of Jenin, in the northern West Bank, despite both having raised their hands in the air in an attempt to surrender.

Al Jazeera reporter Nour Odeh said the two men had “pulled their shirts up, showing that they were unarmed.” After that, the Israeli soldiers ordered them to go back to the building they had sheltered inside.

“And then they were shot dead. They were executed,” according to Odeh.

The Palestinian Authority named the two men killed as 37-year-old Yussef Ali Asa’sa and 26-year-old Al-Muntasir Billah Mahmud Abdullah.

It said they were killed in a “brutal” summary execution and condemned the incident as a “war crime”.

The UN rights office spokesman said the incident came as “killings of Palestinians by Israeli security forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank have been surging, without accountability, even in the rare cases when investigations are announced”.

He said “statements by a senior Israeli government official” seeking “to absolve Israeli security forces of responsibility” raised “serious concerns about the credibility of any future review or investigation conducted by any entity that is not fully independent from the government”.

Laurence said Israeli troops or settlers have killed 1,030 Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the start of the Gaza war.

“Among these victims were 223 children,” he said.

Meanwhile, Palestinian resistance group Hamas said the “brutal military campaign targeting the West Bank governorates” demonstrates that armed resistance remains a “natural and legitimate response” to escalating Israeli crimes.

The movement called on Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza to unite in “comprehensive and unified confrontation” to deter Israeli actions and “thwart its plans against our land and people.”

As part of a military crackdown now entering its third consecutive day, Israeli forces on Friday stormed the Al-Fara’a refugee camp in the Tubas governorate in the northern West Bank. Monitoring Desk