UN says Israeli forces' killing of two West Bank Palestinians looks like 'summary execution'

GENEVA: The United Nations said on Friday that the killing of two Palestinian men in the occupied West Bank by Israeli security forces the previous day appeared to be a “summary execution.”

In footage captured by Palestine TV, Israeli security forces opened fire at two men in the northern West Bank city of Jenin after they appeared to have surrendered.

The men were seen leaving the building and lifting their shirts before lying on the ground in apparent surrender. The forces then appeared to direct them back into the building before shooting them.

“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,” U.N. human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told press in Geneva.

The Israeli military and the country’s police force announced on Thursday that they had opened an investigation into the shooting, saying that forces had opened fire towards suspects who had exited a building.

Mahmoud Asasa, 43, whose 37-year-old brother Yousef was one of the two men shot dead, said: “The act was so hideous. A person who raises his hands and surrenders can be arrested, but eliminating him in such a brutal way is very wrong.”

The shooting took place as Israeli forces were raiding Jenin, a day after launching a military operation in the nearby city of Tubas. Israeli forces have been carrying out a sustained assault on northern West Bank cities since January this year.

Israel’s military and police said in their joint statement that the two men were wanted individuals who were affiliated with a “terror network”.

The statement did not specify what the men were accused of or provide any evidence of their alleged links to a terror network.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has publicly backed the military and police unit involved in the shooting.