JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel said Friday it is opening a military-police investigation into the killing of two Palestinians in the West Bank after an Israeli human rights group released videos that appeared to show Israeli troops killing the men – one who was incapacitated. and the other the second unarmed – during a military raid on a refugee camp in the West Bank.
Human rights group B'Tselem accused the army of carrying out two “illegal executions.”
Surveillance camera videos show two Israeli military vehicles pursuing a group of Palestinians in the Faraa refugee camp in the northern West Bank. A man who appears to be holding a red canister is shot dead by soldiers. B'Tselem identified the man as 25-year-old Rami Jundob.
The military jeep then approaches Jundob, who is lying bleeding on the ground, and fires several shots at him until he stands still. Soldiers then approach a man B'Tselem has identified as 36-year-old Thaar Shahin, who is cowering under the hood of a car. They shoot him at close range.
Btselem said that Shahin was killed immediately and Jundob died of his wounds the next day.
The Israeli military said its military police unit had opened an investigation into the Dec. 8 shootings “due to suspicions that shots were fired in the incident that were not in accordance with the law.” It said that the findings would be forwarded to a military prosecutor, an indication that criminal charges could be filed.
Israel rarely prosecutes such cases, and human rights groups say soldiers rarely face serious punishment even when wrongdoing is found. In a high-profile case, an Israeli soldier was convicted of manslaughter and served a reduced nine-month prison sentence after he shot a seriously wounded Palestinian as he lay on the ground in 2016.
The army recently opened an investigation into a soldier who shot and killed an Israeli who had just killed two Palestinian attackers at a bus stop in Jerusalem. The soldier apparently suspected the Israeli was also an attacker – even though he knelt on the ground, raised his hands and opened his shirt to show he posed no threat. The shooting highlighted what critics say is an epidemic of excessive force by Israeli soldiers, police and armed citizens against suspected Palestinian attackers.
In a separate incident on Friday, police said they had suspended officers who were caught on video beating a Palestinian photojournalist in East Jerusalem. The photojournalist was identified on social media as Mustafa Haruf, who works for Turkey's Anadolu News Agency.
In the video, an officer approaches Haruf and hits him with the butt of his gun while another officer pushes him against a car. One points his gun at Haruf and another pulls him to the ground in a headlock. One officer kneels on Haruf's body and the other officer repeatedly kicks Haruf in the head as he screams in pain.
Other officers stand by, watching and pushing back shocked onlookers.
“The Border Police Command considers the conduct of these officers to be inconsistent with the values of the force,” police said in a statement as they announced the officers’ suspension and an investigation.
Both incidents come as tensions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have increased due to the war between Israel and Hamas, leaving Israelis on edge and bracing for more attacks. Palestinians and human rights groups have long accused Israeli forces of using excessive force and shirking responsibility.
Since the outbreak of war, violence by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank has reached record levels. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 287 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7. It was the deadliest year on record in the West Bank in 18 years, it said.