The Israeli military said today it had launched an investigation after videos emerged showing soldiers apparently pushing dead bodies off a rooftop in the occupied West Bank during an attack on Palestinian militants.
The videos, which began circulating online yesterday, show three soldiers on the roof of a building in Kampala city dragging, pushing, shooting and, in one case, kicking the bodies of dead men off the roof.
Furthermore, AFPTV footage from yesterday’s operation in Kabatilla, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, shows a soldier kicking a corpse to the edge of a building’s roof before throwing it into the air, watched by at least two other soldiers.
Journalists filmed Israeli soldiers pushing three apparently lifeless bodies off rooftops during a raid in the occupied West Bank. pic.twitter.com/sQ6mElnfEK
-DW News (@dwnews) September 20, 2024
Zakaria Zakarneh, the uncle of one of the men, said he saw what happened. Israeli soldiers climbed onto the roof after the Palestinians were killed, he told Reuters.
“They tried to bring the bodies down with a bulldozer but couldn’t, so they threw them from the second floor to the ground,” he said.
“I was in pain, very sad and angry that I couldn’t do something,” Zakarneh explained.
Reuters news agency was able to confirm the area where the video was recorded as Qabatiya and also confirm the date with the help of eyewitnesses and footage recorded by local Palestinian media showing the same scenes.
For its part, the Israeli army stressed in a statement that the incident is serious and does not conform to its values.
In a separate statement, he said his troops killed seven militants during fighting and an airstrike in Kampatiya yesterday.
White House: Images “deeply disturbing”
A White House spokesman today described as “deeply disturbing” footage captured in the West Bank during an Israeli military strike showing a soldier pushing and kicking an apparently dead man from a rooftop.
“If this footage is confirmed as authentic, it would clearly be an abhorrent act and a flagrant violation by military professionals,” said John Kirby, a spokesman for the US National Security Council.