Castle, West Bank – Israeli soldiers pushed three apparently lifeless bodies from rooftops during a raid in the northern part of the occupied West Bank on Thursday, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene and video obtained by AP.
An AP reporter in the city of Qabatiya witnessed three soldiers pushing bodies from the roofs of adjacent multi-story buildings, sending them falling out of sight. It was the latest in a series of suspected violations by Israeli forces since the start of the Israel-Hamas war that rights groups say show a pattern of excessive force against Palestinians.
“This is a serious incident that does not coincide with the values of the IDF and the expectations of the soldiers of the IDF,” the army said in a statement, using the passing acronym. “The incident is under review.”
Majdi Mohammed / AP
Israel said its troops had killed four militants during operations in Qabatiya on Thursday.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah did not immediately confirm multiple deaths, but said one person had been killed in the city and that Israeli gunfire had sent 10 Palestinians to hospital.
In video obtained by AP, three soldiers can be seen picking up what appears to be a rigid body and then dragging it to the edge of a roof while troops stand on the ground below. The soldiers on the roof look over the edge before clearing the body.
On an adjacent roof, soldiers hold another seemingly lifeless body by its limbs and tip it over the edge. In a third case, a soldier throws a body to the edge before falling out of sight. Photos captured by AP during Thursday’s raid show an Israeli army bulldozer moving near the buildings where the bodies were dumped.
Other reporters on the scene also saw bodies being pushed from the roofs.
The identities of the dead and the cause of their deaths were not immediately known.
When retreating from raids, the army usually leaves behind Palestinians killed by Israeli gunfire. Sometimes the army takes the corpses to Israel.
Getty/iStockphoto
Under international law, soldiers are supposed to ensure that dead bodies, including those of enemy combatants, are treated decently.
“There is no military need to do this. It’s just a barbaric way of treating Palestinian bodies,” said Shawan Jabarin, the director of the Palestinian rights group Al-Haq, after seeing the video.
Jabarin said the video was shocking but not surprising, and he had no doubt that Israel would thoroughly investigate the incident. The Israeli military rarely prosecutes soldiers in cases of reported harm to Palestinians, rights groups say.
“The most that will happen is that the soldiers will be disciplined, but there will be no real investigation and no real prosecution,” Jabarin said.
Israeli forces have been accused of abuse of force in the West Bank and Gaza since the war in the smaller Palestinian territory was triggered by the terrorist attack of its leaders Hamas on October 7. That includes accusations of open fire on civilians in Gaza waiting to receive food aid, and the alleged ill-treatment of young Palestinian prisoners.
Human rights organizations have accused both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes in Gaza since the beginning of the war, and the highest court of the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, is currently investigating the allegations brought by South Africa that Israel committed the crime of genocide with its actions in Gaza. Israel condemned the accusation as a “false and baseless” defense of Hamas and its asked in January that the ICJ rejects the case, but the investigation continues.
The AP reporter who witnessed the raid saw a blindfolded, shirtless Palestinian kneeling in front of an Israeli army jeep and armed soldiers. Smoke billowed from several buildings that appeared to be damaged.
While the world’s attention is focused on the far deadlier war in Gaza less than 50 miles away, dozens of Palestinians have been killed, shot and arrested in the West Bank, where the Israeli military has waged a months-long crackdown .
More than 700 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire since the war broke out on October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The northern West Bank has seen some of the worst violence since the outbreak of war.
Israel says the raids are necessary to stamp out militancy, which has been on the rise since October 7. During that time, Palestinian gunmen attacked Israelis at checkpoints and carried out several attacks in Israel.
Earlier this month, Israel carried out its deadliest incursion into the northern West Bank since the start of the war, killing at least 33 people.