Israel accused of cold-blooded shooting of Palestinians in West Bank raids

Israeli troops were accused of an "outright extrajudicial killing" on Thursday after two Palestinian men were shot dead during raids in the occupied West Bank.

Footage showed troops ordering the two people to move inside a damaged building, before several shots rang out and one of the men was seen collapsing.

The Palestinian Authority said the footage showed that “Israeli occupation forces executed two young Palestinians in Jenin in cold blood, even after they had turned themselves in”.It called the incident "an outright extrajudicial killing in blatant violation of international humanitarian law".

It came on the second day of increased Israeli military operations in the north of the occupied West Bank, which has seen arrests of Palestinians and increased numbers of Israeli forces and aircraft deployed.

The Israeli military said the incident in Jenin was under review. It said the shooting involved "wanted individuals" who had opened fire and thrown explosives at Israeli forces.

Israeli forces "entered the area, enclosed the structure in which the suspects were located, and initiated a surrender procedure that lasted several hours", a statement said.

"Following the use of engineering tools on the structure, the two suspects exited. Following their exit, fire was directed toward the suspects."

Israeli soldiers stand guard behind a barrier on the outskirts of Jenin. AFP

Palestinian reports said Israeli attacks this week have struck the city of Tubas, south-east of Jenin, with several Palestinians arrested by soldiers. Much of the city’s governorate is in the highly sensitive Jordan Valley.

Leaflets in Arabic distributed by Israeli troops in the West Bank said the city of Tubas had become a “haven for terrorism” and that if residents “do not change this, we will act as we did in Jenin and Tulkarm”, both of which have seen vast destruction and displacement by the army.

Recent weeks have also seen a spate of ugly incidents involving Israeli settlers in the West Bank, with mosques vandalised and dozens of incidents recorded. The violence has gone too far even for Israeli authorities, who usually do little to prevent settler attacks on Palestinians.

Britain, France, Germany and Italy issued a joint call on Thursday for the attacks to stop after what they called a "massive increase of settler violence". They said Israel should halt the approval of new housing units on ultra-sensitive land east of Jerusalem in what is known as the E1 project.

Destabilising activity in the West Bank "risks undermining the success of the 20-point plan for Gaza", they said, referring to