The three Israel Border Police officers suspected of killing two unarmed Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists in Samaria told investigators they had been in fear for their lives at the time, Israel’s Channel 13 reported on Saturday night.
Thursday’s shooting in the terrorist hub of Jenin was caught on camera, leading the Justice Ministry’s Department for Internal Police Investigations to launch a criminal investigation.
The undercover officers were operating in a home where senior PIJ terrorists were believed to be storing weapons and explosives, according to Channel 13.
After an excavator breached the door of the structure, the officers ordered the men, one of whom was identified as a top Islamic Jihad operative based in the city, to raise their hands and move aside.
The officers told interrogators they ordered the suspects to reposition themselves due to concerns about friendly fire. When one of the men appeared to move back inside the building, an officer fired at his legs.
The operator of the excavator, hearing the shots, believed the suspects had opened fire at the forces and reported that they were being shot at. The three officers subsequently opened fire, killing the two suspects.
In an initial debriefing, the officers said they believed the suspects were armed, per Channel 13 News.
The slain terrorists, identified by Arab media as Mahmoud Qassem Abdallah and Youssef Asasa, were wanted by Israel on suspicion of involvement in bombing and shooting attacks against soldiers.
PIJ, which is funded and orchestrated by the Islamic Republic of Iran, confirmed on Friday that the two were members of its “military wing.”
While the officers are suspected of reckless homicide, the charges that are being prepared against them are less severe, Channel 13 reported.
A spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, in an official statement on Friday condemned the shooting of the two terrorists as an “apparent summary execution.”
The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday night said it continued to locate and destroy explosives and other weapons as part of the military’s ongoing “offensive activity in the northern Samaria region.”
During preparations for planned demolitions of terrorist structures in Jenin, troops uncovered an “explosives laboratory, ammunition, several explosives and additional weapons intended for terrorism,” it stated.
“Security forces continue proactive counter-terrorism operations in northern Samaria as part of ‘Operation Five Stones,’” the army said.
Palestinian terrorists targeted Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria at least 6,343 times in 2024, according to figures published by the Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria) NGO on Feb. 17.
The figures did not include the hundreds of violent attacks targeting Israeli security personnel occurring during ongoing counter-terror operations in cities under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
Twenty-seven Israelis were murdered in Judea and Samaria in 2024, and more than 300 others were wounded, the group said in its annual report.
