The Israeli army has launched an investigation after videos emerged on social media showing its soldiers throwing the bodies of three dead Palestinians from the roof of a building in the town of Qabatayya, the BBC reported. The IDF raided the West Bank town on Thursday, killing seven Palestinian militants.
Footage of the incident, filmed in the northern city of Qabatayya, shows an Israeli military bulldozer collecting and removing bodies, the BBC reported on Friday. Reuters reported that footage that appeared online on Thursday showed three Israeli soldiers on the roof of a building in Qabatayya, “pulling, pushing, throwing down and in one case kicking what appeared to be corpses.”
The footage has sparked widespread outrage, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) saying on Friday it was a “serious incident” that was “not in line with its values” and that an investigation had been launched, the BBC reported.
Israeli soldiers on the roof of a building in Kabatya. Footage from the video Reuters
“He saw what happened”
The uncle of one of the Palestinians killed told Reuters he “saw what happened.” He said Israeli soldiers climbed onto the roof after killing the Palestinians. “(The Israelis) threw them from the second floor to the ground,” he said.
A local journalist told the BBC that Israeli soldiers surrounded a building in the city on Thursday morning. He said four men who were inside the house at the time fled to the roof and were shot by snipers.
Fighting continued in the city and when it died down, a BBC source saw several Israeli soldiers running onto a roof and throwing bodies down, where they were loaded onto a bulldozer.
The city of Kabatiya after the attack by Israeli forces Reuters
Reports of “head of terrorist organization” killed
The IDF said Friday that seven Palestinian militants had been killed in Qabatiya. Among the dead was Shadi Zakarneh, who was said to be responsible for “directing and carrying out attacks in the northern West Bank.”
The IDF statement added that Zakarneh was the “head of a terrorist organization” in Qabatia, but did not specify which group he belonged to, the BBC reported.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called Thursday's incident “a crime that exposed the brutality of the Israeli army.”
National Security Council Spokesperson USA John Kirby previously told reporters that the Kabatya recordings were “deeply disturbing.” “If they are authentic, it will clearly illustrate the abhorrent and flagrant behavior of professional soldiers,” he said.
Israeli forces in Kabatya Reuters
A sharp increase in violence
Since time Hamas attack on Israel in early October last year and the subsequent war in Gaza, there has been a sharp increase in violence in the West Bank. More than 690 Palestinians have been killed there since then, according to the Palestinian health ministry, and Israeli forces are carrying out almost daily searches and arrests. Israel says it is trying to stop Palestinian attacks in the West Bank and Israel, in which at least 33 Israelis have been killed, the BBC reported.
Main image source: Reuters