The Border Police officers who are under investigation over the fatal shooting on Thursday of two unarmed Palestinian terror suspects in the West Bank’s Jenin, after the latter had surrendered and exited a building with their hands raised, claimed to investigators that they had feared the Palestinians would try to harm them, Channel 13 news reported Saturday.
The incident was caught on camera and later confirmed by officials, prompting international condemnation.
The Justice Ministry’s Department for Internal Police Investigations said Friday that it had opened a criminal investigation into three Border Police officers involved in the incident.
The deceased, identified by Palestinian media as 26-year-old Mahmoud Qassem Abdallah and 37-year-old Youssef Asasa, were wanted by Israel on suspicion of involvement in bombing and shooting attacks against troops. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group confirmed Friday that the two were members of its military wing.
After previously claiming that the suspects had not followed their instructions, Channel 13 reported that in their questioning by the Department for Internal Police Investigations, the officers said the terror suspects’ home contained weapons and explosives, and they therefore ordered them to go to a specific area.
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At a certain point, due to fear of friendly fire, the officers ordered the suspects to move, according to the unsourced report. One of the Israeli officers suspected that one of the Palestinians was trying to escape back into the home, and shot at his legs.
جيش الاحتلال يعدم شابين بعد اعتقالهما في محيط مخيم جنين#قناة_الغد pic.twitter.com/4EhXlZXi2b
— قناة الغد (@AlGhadTV) November 27, 2025
Other troops heard the gunfire and believed it came from terror operatives, with one declaring: “There’s gunfire toward us.”
It was then that officers shot and killed the two suspects, who were later found to be unarmed, the report said.
“We feared that the terrorists were armed. We saw them fiddling with equipment inside the building. We feared they would try harming the forces,” it quoted them as saying.
In quotes aired Friday on Army Radio, the officers gave a slightly different account of events, claiming that the troops “didn’t know whether they had weapons or any kind of explosive device. We started instructing them on what to do, and the terrorists acted against the orders they were given.”
“At a certain point, one of the terrorists decided to go back inside the building against the instructions, and the second terrorist followed him, and therefore both were shot,” they added.
Youssef Asasa (left) and Mahmoud Abdallah, in official Islamic Jihad ‘martyr posters’ after they were killed by Border Police officers in the West Bank city of Jenin, November 27, 2025. (Islamic Jihad)
In a joint statement, the military and police said Friday that the planned arrest of the terror suspects took place during an ongoing counter-terrorism operation in Jenin.
“The forces entered the area, encircled a structure in which the suspects were located, and initiated a surrender procedure that lasted several hours,” the military and police said, adding that after troops used heavy machinery to knock down part of the structure, the two suspects exited.
“After they exited the building, shots were fired at the wanted persons,” the statement said.
The IDF and police had said Thursday that the “incident is under review by the commanders on the ground, and will be transferred to the relevant authorities for examination.”
A man looks on near a pool of blood at the site of a reported shooting that left two Palestinians dead during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin on November 27, 2025. (Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
While the incident drew widespread condemnation from around the world, with the UN calling it a “brazen killing” that appeared to amount to execution, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir gave public backing to the troops involved in a post on X: “Lending full backing to the Border Police and IDF troops who shot at wanted terrorists… The troops acted precisely as is expected of them — terrorists have to die!”
While Ben Gvir oversees the police, Border Police operating in the West Bank fall under the military’s jurisdiction.
Going further than just lending his support via social media, Ben Gvir, according to a report in the Haaretz daily on Sunday, decided to promote the commander of the Border Police officers involved in the incident, personally informing the head of the undercover unit that he would be promoted from chief superintendent to the rank of commander.
According to the report, the far-right minister visited the unit’s base on Friday to offer support to the commander and the officers in the unit.
אנחנו כאן בימ”ס איו”ש, באתי לחזק ולחבק את הלוחמים הגיבורים כאן. צריך לעשות סוף לנוהל המעוות הזה כשלוחם שלנו יורה במחבל ישר לוקחים אותו לחקירה. צריך להפסיק את הנוהל המעוות הזה, צריך להפסיק את התפיסה הזאת, אנחנו נלחמים באויבים וברוצחים, שרוצים לאנוס נשים ולשרוף תינוקות. pic.twitter.com/LhKD8uxjvR
— איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) November 28, 2025
Violence in the West Bank has surged since Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023. According to the Palestinian Authority, over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers since then. The IDF has said that most of those killed were gunmen, rioters clashing with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.
Attacks by settler extremists have also risen sharply. The IDF has recorded more than 752 incidents of settler violence in the West Bank since the start of the year, surpassing the 675 incidents recorded in 2024.
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