CAIRO — Israeli forces fatally shot two Palestinian men at point-blank range moments after they appeared to surrender in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Thursday in an incident, captured on camera, that the Palestinian Authority and Israeli rights groups said highlighted Israeli forces’ disregard for Palestinian life.
Israeli authorities said they were investigating the incident.
Footage broadcast on a Palestinian TV channel shows an excavator machine attempting to tear down the door of a garage. Two men emerge from the garage with their arms raised, then lift their shirts — presumably to show they were not strapped with weapons or explosives.
With their arms above their heads, they exit the garage and kneel as Israeli forces approach them, kick them and point automatic rifles at them as they lie on the ground. One Israeli soldier or officer appears to usher them back inside the garage. They turn and duck back under the garage door. Another officer or soldier then shoots them at close range as they lie across the garage entrance, footage broadcast on Egyptian TV channel al-Ghad shows.
Breaking | Israeli occupation forces executed two young Palestinians in Jenin in cold blood, even after they had turned themselves in. An outright extrajudicial killing in blatant violation of international humanitarian law. pic.twitter.com/3qEBUm1oW9
— Government Communication Center (@pal_gcc_en) November 27, 2025
The Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department confirmed to The Washington Post on Friday that a formal probe had been opened. Israel Border Police were operating jointly with Israeli soldiers in Jenin at the time. Three Border Police officers have been summoned for questioning, according to a spokesman for the Border Police.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who is in charge of the Israel Police, cheered the behavior of the forces involved. “I give my full backing to the Border Police officers and IDF soldiers who opened fire at the wanted terrorists as they emerged from a building in Jenin. The troops acted exactly as expected — terrorists should die!” he wrote on social media.
Palestinian authorities identified the victims as Al-Muntasir Abdullah, 26, and Youssef Asasa, 37, and said Israeli forces took their bodies into custody, according to WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency.
Israeli authorities accused the two men killed Thursday of being part of a “terror network” in the Jenin area. Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed the two men as fighters in the Jenin battalion and described Asasa as a “leader” in a statement Friday mourning their deaths. The umbrella group of militants, led by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, operated from a Jenin refugee camp before Israeli forces launched a massive operation to clear out and occupy the camp in January. Israeli and Palestinian Authority security forces have since killed or captured most West Bank militants and driven the remaining members into hiding.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority called the shooting “an outright extrajudicial killing in blatant violation of international humanitarian law” in a statement Thursday. The foreign ministry called on the U.N. Security Council and international courts to “take immediate action to stop the Israeli killing machine,” including potentially through the deployment of U.N. peacekeeping forces to the occupied Palestinian territories. It also called for the prosecution of Israeli leaders accused of war crimes.
Thursday’s killing is “the result of an accelerated process of dehumanization of Palestinians and the complete abandonment of their lives by the Israeli regime,” said Yuli Novak, executive director of Israeli rights group B’Tselem, in a statement Thursday evening.
After the footage was broadcast on television and went viral on social media, the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Police said in a joint statement Thursday that their forces had been attempting to “apprehend wanted individuals” in Jenin whom they accused of throwing explosives and firing at security forces. The statement did not say that Abdullah and Asasa had been firing at Israeli forces just before they were shot.
“The forces entered the area, enclosed the structure in which the suspects were located, and initiated a surrender procedure that lasted several hours. Following the use of engineering tools on the structure, the two suspects exited,” the Israeli statement said. “Following their exit, fire was directed toward the suspects.”
“The incident is under review by the commanders on the ground, and will be transferred to the relevant professional bodies,” the statement added.
The IDF chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, ordered the military to intensify its probe of the incident, Israel’s public broadcaster reported early Friday.
Breaking the Silence, an Israeli rights group that focuses on misconduct by Israeli soldiers, called the killings “business as usual” for Israeli security forces. Commenting on one of the videos in a post on X, the group noted: “None of the other soldiers flinched.”
Joel Carmel, advocacy director for the group, called the killing an example of the “Gazafication of the West Bank, with total impunity for even the most outrageous of actions … now completely normalized throughout the ranks of the forces serving in the occupied territories.”
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since Oct. 7, 2023, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The chances of an investigation resulting in an indictment and penalties for any the Israeli forces involved are slim, rights group say. “In Israel, there is no mechanism that acts to stop the killing of Palestinians or is capable of prosecuting those responsible,” Novak, the B’Tselem director, said in a statement.
Hamas condemned the killings in a statement and called on Palestinians to confront the Israeli occupation.
The shooting took place on the second day of a major Israeli security operation in the northern West Bank involving ground troops backed by air power. The operation, which the military says aims to round up militants accused of carrying out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces over the past year, has largely concentrated on the city of Tubas and surrounding villages. Palestinian Authority officials lambasted the fresh incursions as a political move by Israel not justified by security needs.
Israeli forces imposed a curfew on the area early Wednesday and have since conducted sweeping searches of buildings in the area, including private homes, and detained dozens of people, according to Israeli statements and Palestinian news reports.
Director of Ambulance and Emergency Services in Tubas, Nidal Odeh, told WAFA that first responders have treated more than 70 people who were beaten by Israeli soldiers since the beginning of the incursion.
The military’s press desk declined to comment the reports of soldiers beating Palestinians.
Israeli forces raided al-Far’a refugee camp in the Tubas region on Friday morning, storming homes and detaining people, Palestinian media reported. A resident of the camp told The Post the army forced 25 families to leave their homes and informed them they wouldn’t be allowed to return for at least a week. Dozens of people were detained, the resident said, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear for their safety.
The Israeli military also said this week it would demolish another 24 residential buildings in Jenin refugee camp, in addition to the dozens of homes it has already destroyed there.
Soroka reported from Tel Aviv. Siham Shamalakh in Cairo contributed to this report.
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