Israeli soldiers can be seen throwing apparently lifeless bodies from a rooftop during a raid in the occupied West Bank, videos geolocated by NBC News show — an incident the Israeli military said Friday was under review and did not align with its values.
The videos first emerged on social media Thursday and show Israeli soldiers on a rooftop near the town of Qabatiya, west of Jenin, in the north of the West Bank.
In one of the videos, a man in uniform can be seen pushing a body and kicking it several times until it falls off the rooftop and out of view, before all three walk away.
Another video showing more of the incident from a different angle shows three men throwing three bodies from the rooftop, one by one.
NBC News could not verify when the videos were shot. It’s not clear who the dead in the videos were or how they died.
The Associated Press news agency reported that one of its journalists at the scene in Qabatiya witnessed three soldiers push three bodies off the roofs of adjacent multistory buildings.
“This is a serious incident that does not coincide with IDF values and the expectations from IDF soldiers,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement to NBC News. “The incident is under review.”
In a separate statement, the IDF said its troops killed four “armed terrorists” during “an exchange of fire” in Qabatiya on Thursday.
Hamas accused Israel in a statement Thursday of throwing the “bodies of martyrs from the roofs of houses” in Qabatiya. Palestinian officials called the incident “a new war crime” Friday.
Jenin Gov. Kamal Abu al-Rub told the Reuters news agency that six Palestinians were killed and 18 others injured by Israeli forces during a military raid in Qabatiya on Thursday. Al-Rub told the news agency that Israeli forces withdrew from Qabatiya after destroying infrastructure in the area.
The Geneva Conventions call for the bodies of the dead in conflicts, including combatants, to be treated with respect.
In the months since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terror attack and the subsequent Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, violence has surged in the West Bank, with near-daily raids by Israeli forces.
Last month, Israel launched a sweeping military operation in the area, the largest in more than 20 years.
Palestinian health officials said earlier this month that almost 700 Palestinians have died in the West Bank since the Oct. 7 attack, which Israeli officials said killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 taken hostage.
More than 41,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip in Israel’s monthslong offensive, according to local officials.
