RAMALLAH, Palestine/ JERUSALEM/ ISTANBUL

Israeli army forces executed two Palestinian youths in the West Bank city of Jenin on Thursday evening despite their surrender.

A video clip circulated on social media showed Israeli soldiers opening fire from zero distance at the two young men after they raised their hands and surrendered to the army.

Local sources told Anadolu that the killing occurred in the Jabal Abu Dhahir neighborhood of Jenin during a large-scale Israeli raid in the area.

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the two men as Muntasir Qassem Abdullah, 26, and Youssef Assa’sa, 37, saying their bodies were withheld by Israeli forces.

Jenin Governor Kamal Abu al-Rub told Anadolu that the Israeli army “did not allow anyone to approach the scene and prevented ambulances from evacuating the two young men.”

“The two young men raised their hands to the army, but soldiers opened fire on them,” he added.

The Israeli army claimed in a statement that it has conducted a field investigation into the circumstances of the incident.

On Wednesday, the army started a large-scale Israeli assault in the northern occupied West Bank, specifically in the Jenin and Tubas provinces.

Alongside the two-year war in Gaza, where nearly 70,000 people have been killed, assaults by the army and illegal settlers in the West Bank have killed at least 1,083 Palestinians and injured about 11,000, while more than 20,500 have been detained, according to official Palestinian figures.

In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.