(Qabatiyah) Footage filmed in the West Bank during an Israeli military raid showing a soldier pushing an apparently dead man from a rooftop with his foot is “under review,” the Israeli military said Friday.
AFPTV footage of the operation, carried out Thursday in Qabatiyah, in the north of the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, shows a soldier pushing the body with his foot to roll it to the edge of the roof of a building before throwing it into the void, under the gaze of at least two other soldiers.
The army announced in a statement on Friday that it had “eliminated [sept] terrorists”, during this raid which gave rise to exchanges of fire between soldiers and armed men.
Asked about the footage showing a soldier pushing a body off a roof, the Israeli army responded with a statement saying “this is a serious incident that does not correspond to the values of the Israeli army and what is expected of soldiers.” “The incident is being examined,” it added.
In the United States, a White House spokesman called the images “deeply concerning”: “If the images are authenticated, this is clearly abhorrent and shocking behavior by professional military personnel,” said John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council.
A stronghold of Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel, Jenin and its Palestinian refugee camp have been the target of Israeli military raids as part of a large-scale offensive launched at the end of August in the northern West Bank, which is still ongoing.
Several dozen Palestinians, including many fighters and civilians aged from 13 to over 80, were killed in the operation, in which one Israeli soldier died.
Since the start of the war on October 7 in the Gaza Strip between the Israeli army and Hamas, triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement, violence between Palestinians on the one hand, and the Israeli army and settlers on the other, has intensified in the West Bank.
More than 680 Palestinians have been killed there by gunfire from Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to data from the Palestinian Health Ministry, and at least 24 Israelis, including soldiers, have died there in Palestinian attacks or in military operations, according to official Israeli data.