Videos purportedly show 2 Palestinian boys shot dead during Israeli raid in West Bank
Israel says 2 Palestinian militant leaders also killed in Jenin and its soldiers shot after explosives thrown
WARNING: This story includes disturbing content.
Four Palestinians, including an eight-year-old and a 15-year-old as well as two senior militant commanders, were killed on Wednesday by Israeli forces in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said.
"The two children, Adam Samer Al-Ghoul (eight years old) and Basil Suleiman Abu Al-Wafa (15 years old), were shot dead by occupation forces in the city of Jenin," the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday.
Unverified video circulating on social media appeared to show Al-Ghoul and Al-Wafa being hit, in separate incidents, but the footage did not show who fired the shot.
CBC News reached out to the Israel Defence Forces after the videos emerged on Wednesday. In a response sent Friday, an IDF spokesperson did not address a specific question about accusations its soldier fatally shot the two boys.
"During the counterterrorist activity, exchanges of fire took place, and explosive devices were hurled at the forces who responded with fire toward the terrorists and hit them," the response read.
The IDF's claims could not be independently verified.
Videos appear to show boys' final moments
One of the videos shared by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA shows three boys running away before one of them, identified as Al-Ghoul, tumbles to the ground and stops moving. Another boy rushes to him and drags his limp body behind a car. A trail of blood can be seen on the ground.
CBC News has edited the video to show only the aftermath of the shooting.
A second video shows several boys, dressed in black, running in the street. A boy, reported to be Al-Wafa, can be seen moving forward with something in his hands moments before he appears to be shot, falls to the ground and lays motionless.
WAFA cited "local sources" saying Israeli forces shot the boys directly and "and left them bleeding, as they prevented citizens and paramedics from reaching them and treating them," according to an English translation of its report. The report could not be independently verified.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society also said, in a post on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, it was prevented from reaching injured people in part of the Jenin refugee camp, though it did not specifically mention any of the victims.
🚨Israeli occupation forces prevent PRCS paramedics 🚑from reaching a besieged neighbourhood in Jenin Refugee Camp, despite the presence of injured persons who need help and whose life is threatened.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jenin?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Jenin</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NotATarget?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NotATarget</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IHL?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IHL</a> <a href="https://t.co/ATCVDmBKHD">pic.twitter.com/ATCVDmBKHD</a>
—@PalestineRCSDr. Wissam Bakker, director of the Khalil Suleiman Governmental Hospital in Jenin, where the boys' bodies were later taken, said the Israeli military placed the medical facility under siege.
"They entered inside the interior yard of the hospital and they prevent[ed] any wounded to enter the emergency department," he told CBC News senior international correspondent Margaret Evans in Jenin.
He believes the IDF deliberately shot both boys based on where the bullets hit, "on the upper part of the body, in the brain and in the chest," he said.
Israel says militant leaders killed in Jenin
The Israeli military also said its troops killed two Islamic Jihad militants during Wednesday's raid in Jenin.
WAFA identified them as Muhammad Jamal Zubaidi and Wissam Ziad Hanoun.
The Israeli army said in a statement Zubeidi and Hanoun were killed during "counterterrorism activity conducted in the Jenin Camp."
Zubeidi was a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative and one of its central leaders in the Jenin Camp, the army said.
The Israeli military said he had been involved in extensive militant activity and carried out shooting attacks and promoted other attacks.
West Bank violence, deaths rising
Prior to Oct. 7, when Hamas led deadly attacks on Israeli communities and Israel declared war on the Gaza-based militant group, 2023 was already a particularly deadly year in the occupied West Bank — especially for children, according UN officials.
The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has documented more than 450 Palestinian killings in the West Bank this year. More than 230 of those killings, including 61 children, have happened since Oct. 7, OCHA reported.
OCHA, in its most recent update on Nov. 28, said Israeli forces were responsible for nearly all of the killings since Oct. 7, adding 67 per cent of the fatalities "occurred during search-and-arrest operations and other operations carried out by Israeli forces."
"More than half of the fatalities were reported in operations that did not involve armed clashes," OCHA said.
With files from Nick Logan, Margaret Evans and The Associated Press