Israel Summarily Executes Two Unarmed Palestinians in Jenin After Apparent Surrender

On 27 November, Israeli border police and army forces shot and killed two Palestinian men in the Jabal Abu Dhahir area of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

“Israeli forces carried out a large overnight operation across the Tubas governorate (Tubas city, Aqaba, Tammun and Tayasir) from midnight Tuesday into Wednesday, making mass arrests and—according to the report—committing abuses against dozens of Palestinian residents”

- IMEMC News

Footage broadcast on Arab television and seen by journalists appeared to show the men exiting a partly demolished building with their hands up and lifting their shirts as if to show they were unarmed.

- IMEMC News

They then re-entered the structure and were fatally shot, prompting immediate outrage and an internal review by Israeli authorities.

Multiple outlets report that the Palestinian Health Ministry identified the dead as Montasir (Al-Muntasir) Abdullah, 26, and Yusuf (Youssef/Yousef) Asasa, 37.

Video, including footage from Reuters and Palestine TV, was central to public accounts of what happened.

The incident is part of a wider series of raids across northern West Bank towns that Israeli officials say target armed groups and that rights groups and Palestinian officials say have escalated since October 2023.

Video and witness accounts shown on Palestine TV and other channels, and reported by journalists on the ground, describe a sequence in which armoured vehicles and soldiers surrounded a garage or house.

Engineering equipment breached the entrance.

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Two men emerged with their hands raised, lifted their shirts and lay on the ground in apparent surrender.

They were ordered back inside and then were shot at close range.

Footage also shows bodies on the ground and troops using a bulldozer or lowering a roller door onto the scene.

Blankets then covered the area.

Several outlets published near-identical descriptions of the same clips, and witnesses and journalists on scene said at least one man collapsed after being hit.

Israeli military and national police acknowledged the shooting, described the two men as 'wanted' and said they had been linked to attacks including throwing explosives and shooting at troops.

“The article warns that a Gaza ceasefire could free Israeli forces to expand operations in the occupied West Bank, where raids have intensified in the north — notably in late January and early February in Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps”

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They said a prolonged 'surrender procedure' lasting hours preceded the suspects exiting and that the case is under review.

At the same time, Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, publicly praised the forces involved, saying 'terrorists must die,' a remark that UN officials and rights advocates say undermines the credibility of internal probes.

Some Israeli reporting (Le Monde and local outlets) notes that officers were briefly held and released after giving accounts that were deemed credible by their lawyers.

Palestinian authorities, rights organizations and parts of the international community have demanded urgent, independent inquiries and framed the shooting as an apparent extrajudicial or summary execution.

The Palestinian Authority called the killings brutal and an outright extrajudicial killing, while Hamas described them as an execution.

Al Jazeera

The UN human rights office described the deaths as an apparent summary execution and urged independent investigations.

Rights groups such as B'Tselem and Human Rights Watch said the footage fits a pattern of excessive force and impunity in the West Bank.

Humanitarian and rights-monitoring organisations and UN offices place the Jenin shooting in a broader pattern of rising violence and alleged impunity in the West Bank since October 2023.

“Israeli forces carried out large raids across the occupied West Bank this week, interrogating most people on site but arresting at least eight who were taken to military jails; separate operations in Qalqilya, Jenin and Nablus netted at least nine more detainees”

Al Jazeera

The UN's human-rights office has verified over 1,000 Palestinian deaths in that period and warned of worsening accountability, while rights groups have logged numerous alleged arbitrary killings and evictions.

Al Jazeera

Some outlets and commentators say the case reflects entrenched patterns that internal military reviews rarely break.

Israeli officials and security commentators present the raids as counter-terror operations aimed at disrupting networks that have allegedly used explosives and gunfire against troops.

Accountability and the outcome of the current probe will be key to how different audiences interpret what happened in Jenin.