A shocking video has circulated on social media showing Israeli soldiers throwing the bodies of Palestinian men from a building during a raid in the occupied West Bank, prompting the Hamas resistance movement to urge the world to condemn the "heinous crime."
The footage showed Israeli soldiers on Thursday abusing the bodies of three Palestinians killed during an Israeli raid on the town of Qabatiya in the northern part of the West Bank, and throwing them one by one from the rooftop of a house.
According to Palestinian reports, Israeli bulldozers later swept the bodies away and seized them.
“There is no military need to do this. It’s just a savage way of treating Palestinian bodies,” Shawan Jabarin, the director of Palestinian rights group Al-Haq, told AP after watching the footage, which he described as shocking but not surprising.
Footage shows Israeli occupation soldiers discarding the body of a Palestinian youth they had killed from the rooftop of a building during the incursion into Qabatiya, located south of Jenin.#FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/7Jn6u31wKW
— Palestine Highlights (@PalHighlight) September 19, 2024
Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli troops raided Qabatiya, blockading four homes, and besieging nearly 1,000 students in the schools of Izzat Abu al-Rab and Qabatiya. Staff was also trapped inside the Education Directorate which lies near the raided area.
In total, at least seven Palestinians were killed and 10 others were injured throughout the day.
Dozens of students suffered from breathing difficulties due to inhaling teargas fired heavily by the soldiers.
Commenting on the video, Hamas said in a statement on Thursday, “The brutal scenes committed by the Zionist occupation army in the town of Qabatiya, west of Jenin, … confirm once again the barbarity and brutality of this occupation, which has been committing massacres and genocide against our people in Gaza for a year, amid international silence and American political and military cover.”
Hamas said the abuse of the bodies of martyrs is “a heinous crime” that must be strongly condemned by all countries, international organizations, and human rights group.
“These horrific crimes committed in Gaza and the West Bank represent a flagrant violation of all international humanitarian and legal standards. It confirms that this fascist occupation needs no excuse to carry out its killings and crimes against our people and the peoples of the region," The Palestinian Information Center quoted Hamas' statement as saying.
Hamas stressed that such scenes and crimes will fuel public anger and increase acts of resistance carried out by the “heroes” of the West Bank.
Israeli forces shoot at Palestinian journalists as they report on the raid in the town of Qabatiya, located south of Jenin.#FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/iPHkEUvqI0
— Palestine Highlights (@PalHighlight) September 19, 2024
Since the start of Israel’s aggression on Gaza, the West Bank has also seen a rise in violence from Israeli forces and settlers that have claimed the lives of at least 714 Palestinians and injured thousands of others since October 7.
Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.
The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed more than 41,272 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured tens of thousands others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.