Israeli forces kill Palestinian men in West Bank after they appear to surrender

JERUSALEM AP Israeli forces on Thursday killed a pair of Palestinian men in the occupied West Bank after they appeared to surrender to troops drawing Palestinian accusations that the men were executed in cold blood The Israeli military stated it was probing The killings captured in videos shown on two Arab TV stations came as Israel pressed ahead with its latest offensive in the West Bank where the army has stepped up its pursuits over the past two years Israel says it is cracking down on militants but Palestinians and rights groups accuse Israel of using excessive force and say dozens of unarmed civilians have been killed Israel has been fighting on a number of fronts as a shaky ceasefire in Gaza moves forward On Thursday Israel carried out another round of airstrikes on suspected Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon Ongoing conflicts in the region have fueled concerns that unrest could spill over and undermine the fragile truce in Gaza A Palestinian-American teenager held in Israeli detention for nine months was also issued on Thursday night The -year-old emerged visibly thin and was embraced by his crying family Israeli forces accused of executing Palestinian men in West Bank The Israeli military and national police stated they were opening an research into the deaths Thursday of the two men who were shot by members of the dividing line police a special unit that often operates alongside the Israeli military In a video shown on Palestine TV which has no sound the two men come out of a garage holding their hands up and lifting their shirts to show they are not carrying explosives They are ordered to the ground and kicked by one of the policemen They are then ordered back to the garage In a video shown by Egyptian TV station Al-Ghad the men are ordered back to the entrance of the garage As they are on the ground and surrounded by troops gunshots are heard and the men slump down apparently lifeless At least one soldier is seen firing his weapon In a announcement the Israeli military reported the two men were demanded militants in the northern town of Jenin who had thrown explosives and opened fire at troops It commented that after the men surrendered and exited a building fire was directed toward the persons of interest It noted was the situation was under review and would be referred to the relevant professional bodies Palestinians and human rights groups say such investigations yield scant results and Israeli troops are rarely prosecuted Israel s far-right national guard minister Itamar Ben-Gvir who oversees the national police praised the Israeli forces saying they had acted exactly as they are expected to terrorists must die In Ramallah the Palestinian prime minister s office accused Israel of executing the men in cold blood It called the shooting an outright extrajudicial killing in blatant violation of international humanitarian law Palestinian functionaries identified the men as Al-Muntasir Abdullah and Yousef Asasa and reported Israel had taken away their bodies The situation was reminiscent of the event of Elor Azaria a soldier convicted of manslaughter in for fatally shooting an already wounded Palestinian attacker That incident deeply divided the nation with nationalistic politicians defending the soldier Azaria was disclosed early from prison after serving a nine-month sentence Escalation in the West Bank The shooting is part of a larger operation in a northeastern region of the West Bank Israel s military has detained more than people since Tuesday in the town of Tubas according to Abdullah al-Zaghari spokesman for the advocacy group Palestinian Prisoners Club The military has announced the operation was a response to attempts to establish terrorist strongholds and construction of terror infrastructures in the area On Nov Palestinian attackers stabbed an Israeli to death and wounded three more at a West Bank intersection before being shot down by troops Israel s military has scaled up military operations in the West Bank since the Oct Hamas attack which triggered the war in Gaza The latest operation comes amid a rising tide of Israeli settler violence in the West Bank Israeli leaders have played down the settler attacks as the work of a small minority But Palestinians say the attacks are frequent often in close proximity to Israeli troops and the settlers are rarely punished Strikes on Lebanon ahead of the pope s visit Israel s air force carried out another series of strikes in parts of southern Lebanon on Thursday Israel says its ongoing strikes are aimed at preventing Hezbollah from rebuilding after a devastating war last year But the United Nations on Tuesday commented Israel had killed at least civilians including children in its strikes on Lebanon since the ceasefire came into effect one year ago Things escalated earlier this week with a rare strike in Lebanon s capital of Beirut killing Hezbollah s chief of staff On Thursday Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam criticized Hezbollah for not disarming in a rare rebuke of the group saying the Iran-backed militants have failed to deter Israeli airstrikes protect the Lebanese people or even safeguard the lives of its own leaders Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit the country on Sunday when he will meet the crisis-hit nation s political and religious leaders American teen published from Israeli jail Mohammed Ibrahim an American teenager held in Israeli custody for nine months was issued Thursday evening and this instant checked into a hospital his uncle recounted the AP Visibly thin head shaven and still in a grey jumpsuit Ibrahim wiped tears away as he was embraced by family members shortly after his release in videos taken by the family His father Zaher Ibrahim kissed his son and began to cry He s skinny and pale his eyes are sunken in and he still has signs of scabies declared Zeyad Kadur the uncle The teen was visiting family in the West Bank with his parents when he was arrested at his family s home at night for allegedly throwing rocks at Israeli settlers in the West Bank according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations and several members of Congress In an affidavit Mohammed reported he only confessed to stone-throwing after he was threatened by interrogators with a beating His family and lawyers announced he was held in poor conditions suffered a scabies infection and lost weight in jail Janetsky and Frankel disclosed from Jerusalem