Footage shows Israeli troops killing two unarmed men
ISRAELI soldiers shot dead two unarmed Palestinian men at close range in Gaza, footage obtained by news outlet Al Jazeera has shown. The men repeatedly waved what appeared to be white fabric in the video in a sign of surrender and to show they did not pose a threat.
The incident took place near the Nabulsi Roundabout, southwest of Gaza City, as the men tried to return to their homes. It came just days after the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as Israel continues its assault that has resulted in the death of tens of thousands of Palestinians.
The footage shows one man approaching the troops, holding up a cloth, while the other turned around but still appearing to raise a piece of white fabric.
The man who turned around is then seen being pursued by an armoured vehicle while soldiers open fire on him as the footage shows him collapsing in the sand. A bulldozer is then used to bury the two bodies, including that of the first man who had walked towards the soldiers.
The Israeli army told Al Jazeera that a “thorough and professional examination is required in order to assess the details of the incident”.
However, it also said the video “is edited and does not show the context of the incident,” adding it had transferred its report “to the relevant professional bodies for review”.
Hamas meanwhile condemned the killings, adding that it was “further evidence of the scale of fascism and criminality that governs Zionist behaviour, in the context of the brutal war of extermination against our people in the Gaza Strip”.
It further called on the International Criminal Court to take “necessary measures” to hold Israel accountable for “the crimes they commit against children and defenceless civilians.”
Al Jazeera further reported that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) – a civil rights and advocacy group based in the US – called for a UN investigation into what it called a “heinous war crime” as it said Israel appears to “kill Palestinians on a whim”.
“This genocide must be stopped, not excused or supported with weapons (and) rhetoric,” CAIR said.
At the beginning of January, the Israel Defence Forces claimed footage obtained by ITV showing a man part of a group holding a white flag being shot dead was “clearly edited”.
Israeli airstrikes killed nine people in southern Lebanon late on Wednesday, including paramedics who were preparing to respond to the first strike, the state-run National News Agency said.
That raises the number of people killed by Israeli strikes on Wednesday to 16, after an earlier attack hit a different paramedic centre linked to a Lebanese Sunni Muslim group, killing seven of the group’s members.
And earlier on Wednesday, the Shia militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for firing a barrage of rockets into the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona and a military base, which killed one person.
It said the rockets were in response to the deadly strike on the paramedics centre.
The Lebanese news agency said Israel bombed the village of Teir Harfa after sunset, killing five, and a second strike killed four people as paramedics gathered near a cafe in the coastal town of Naqoura.
Hezbollah’s Islamic health society said that two of its paramedics were killed in Teir Harfa while the Islamic Risala scout association, also a paramedic group, said one of its members was killed in the strike on Naqoura.
Hezbollah said two of its fighters were killed, without saying where.
The Amal movement, a Shia political and paramilitary organisation, said the strike on Naquora killed one of its local commanders, identified as Ali Mahdi.
Israel’s military said it had struck a Hezbollah military compound in Teir Harfa and a “terrorist cell” in Naqoura.
Israel said the earlier strike in Hebbariye killed a member of the Sunni al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, and several other militants.
It said the man was involved in attacks against Israel.
Hezbollah has been firing rockets into northern Israel since the day after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7.
Nearly 240 Hezbollah fighters and about 40 civilians have died in Lebanon.
The fighting has killed nine civilians and 11 soldiers in Israel.
Two-thirds of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are not functioning after Al Amal hospital in the south of the territory ceased operations amid intense military activity UN officials said.