IDF investigating soldiers for abusing dead Palestinians

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said it is investigating troops for throwing the bodies of dead Palestinians off a rooftop during a raid in the town of Qabatiya in the occupied West Bank.  

Videos recorded from different angles by witnesses to the raid on Thursday, including AP and Al-Araby journalists, show three soldiers on the rooftop of a multi-story building pushing apparently lifeless bodies over the edge of the building.   

“This is a serious incident that is not in line with IDF values and what is expected of IDF soldiers,” the Israeli military said on Friday.  

The footage captures soldiers dragging one body toward the edge of the roof and then throwing it to the ground. Approaching a second body, the soldiers hold it by its limbs and swing it over the edge. In a third instance, a soldier kicks a body over the side of the building. The three Palestinian men had reportedly been killed during the Israeli raid.  

Photos taken at the site show an Israeli army bulldozer moving near the buildings where the bodies were dropped.  

“A bulldozer tried to demolish the house to bring the bodies down. That didn’t work,” Al-Araby reporter Ameed Shehadeh, who witnessed the incident, told CNN. 

“Soldiers went up and kicked and pushed the bodies off the roof, as we have seen. They kicked and pushed and threw three different bodies from one roof, and a fourth body was thrown off the adjacent roof a few meters below.”  

According to the IDF, Israeli troops killed four gunmen during the latest operation in Qabatiya in the northern part of the West Bank.  

International law requires militaries to treat dead bodies, including those of enemy combatants, with respect and return them to their families.   

Israel launched a large-scale “counterterrorism operation” against Palestinians in the West Bank in response to an attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv last month. Over 700 Palestinians in the area have been killed by Israeli forces since last October, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.