UN blasts Israel’s killing of two Palestinians in occupied West Bank as ‘summary execution’

The United Nations has denounced the Israeli forces’ killing of two Palestinian men during a raid in the occupied West Bank as a “summary execution,” warning it reflects a “systematic policy” employed by Israel.

Reporters documented the two Palestinian men surrendering and being unarmed before Israeli forces fatally shot them during the raid in Jenin on Thursday.

Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for the UN human rights office, on Friday denounced  the “brazen killing” and described it as “yet another apparent summary execution.”

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

Laurence noted that the incident came as “Killings of Palestinians by Israeli security forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank have been surging without any accountability.”

The UN rights office spokesman said Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 1,030 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East al-Quds, between October 7, 2023, and November 27 of this year, according to the latest UN data.

The figure includes at least 223 Palestinian children.

“Impunity for [Israeli] forces’ unlawful use of force and ever-growing Israeli settler violence must end,” Laurence urged.

Videos circulating on social media and broadcast by television channels show the two Palestinian men exiting a building surrounded by armed Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Jenin, lifting their shirts and lying on the ground in an apparent surrender.

The forces then appeared to direct the men back inside the building before opening fire at close range, with the men slumping down, apparently lifeless.

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The Palestinian resistance group also strongly denounced silence of the international community in the face of the Israel’s criminal behavior.

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the two men as 26-year-old al-Muntasir Abdullah and 37-year-old Yousef Asasa. It added that their bodies were being held by Israeli forces.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the shooting as a “war crime” and a “brutal” summary execution.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said it “strongly condemns the brutal field execution carried out by the Israeli occupation army against two Palestinian youths,” calling it a “deliberate Israeli war crime.”

It called upon the international community to take “immediate action to stop the Israeli killing machine, deter these crimes, and impose urgent international protection mechanisms for the Palestinian people.”

The Palestinian Hamas resistance group called it a “cold-blooded execution of two unarmed Palestinian youths.”

Palestinians in the West Bank have been subjected to escalating Israeli military actions and settler violence, amid the genocidal war in Gaza that has killed nearly 70,000 people in the coastal territory since October 2023.

Rights organizations have been cautioning for months that Palestinians in the West Bank are at increasing risk of ethnic cleansing due to the ongoing violence.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Israel’s extended occupation of historic Palestine to be unlawful.

The ICJ urged the removal of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds.

While the court’s advisory opinion is not legally binding, it holds considerable political significance as it marks the first occasion the ICJ has addressed the legality of the 57-year-long occupation.

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