There are so many chilling aspects to the video from Jenin.
The men being shot, calmly and precisely, from close range after appearing to surrender; the digger being used to bring down part of the building on top of their bodies. The total lack of shock among the soldiers – at least six of them – who were involved.
But perhaps the most troubling is the realisation that we only know about this because someone filmed it. Otherwise, this might well have gone down as a military operation where two people – invariably referred to as “terrorists” – were killed.
Within Jenin, to the north of the occupied West Bank, everyone has heard of this video. Farha Abu Alheja tells me that she was “angry and frustrated” after seeing the footage.
“They were killed in cold blood,” she says. “They could have just arrested them, not executed them. It’s a heinous crime. As a Palestinian woman, and mother, my heart goes out. I can’t imagine how their mothers are feeling.”
Farha reflects a blend of hopelessness and helplessness: “We have no international protection. I feel that we Palestinians don’t mean anything to the rest of the world.
“This is not the first time this has happened, but nobody does anything. We have no life in Jenin – we live in a state of fear and tension.
“You leave home and you don’t know if the Israelis will have demolished it when you come back. They don’t need an excuse to do anything.”
There will be an investigation into these killings, and the Israeli military insists it is transparent.
The IDF’s spokesperson, Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, admitted that shots had been “directed toward” the two men as they “exited” a building (even though the footage shows them going back into it, at the behest of soldiers).
He added: “The incident is under review by the commanders on the ground, and will be transferred to the relevant professional bodies.”
But for those expecting accountability and independent investigation, the precedents are not encouraging.
Between 2018 and 2022, the last years for which data are available, there were 219 court cases launched into allegations of Palestinians being killed, illegally, by Israeli soldiers on the West Bank.
Of these, 112 were deemed to be unworthy of investigation. Of the remaining 107, it was decided that 106 did not merit an indictment.
In the single case where a soldier was indicted, he was convicted of killing a Palestinian after opening fire at the scene of a traffic accident. His punishment was three months of community service.
Over the course of many years, Jenin has been the crucible of so much tension and violence – the scene of endless clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces.
According to the Oslo Accords of 30 years ago, it is under Palestinian control, but the Israeli military routinely go there to exert control, demolish buildings and arrest people. They claim they are thwarting terrorism; others see it as a form of creeping annexation.
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Tensions are always high there. But now, with Palestinians affected by the twin spectres of Gaza’s destruction and a wave of violence carried out by settlers in the West Bank, the anxiety is thick in the air.
And it is stirred by the unapologetic response of plenty in Israel. More than 60% of Israeli Jews oppose investigations being carried out into soldiers accused of abusing Palestinians.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister in charge of national security, is unstinting in his praise of the military and his fury at the idea that soldiers should be investigated.
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In the wake of these killings, he doubled down, saying that Israelis needed to “stop this distorted procedure” of questioning soldiers. “We are fighting enemies and murderers who want to rape women and burn babies,” he said.
This is the backdrop to the killing of these two men. The footage seems clear – the shots fired calmly and deliberately.
The question is how this could have happened – why was this allowed? But many in Israel don’t want the question to be asked, and nor do they want to know the answers.
