Violence in the West Bank has surged to levels unseen in nearly two decades since October 7. (File)
Jerusalem:
Israel’s army said on Wednesday one of its vehicles “unintentionally” ran over the body of a Palestinian operative during a counter-terrorism operation in the occupied West Bank earlier this week.
Palestinian officials accused Israel of committing a “brutal crime” after social media footage showed a military vehicle running over a dead operative in the city of Tulkarem late on Monday.
The military said they had killed three “terrorists” in exchanges of gunfire during an operation to arrest a wanted man.
“The operational vehicle that is seen in the video was dispatched in order to extricate the force that was caught under heavy fire, and unintentionally ran over the terrorist’s body,” the Israeli military said in response to an AFP request for comment.
Other footage shared on social media from the incident shows a group of men running out of a building and three of them being shot.
The military said it would review what had happened and added that the video “does not show the incident in its entirety”.
Violence in the West Bank has surged to levels unseen in nearly two decades since October 7, when attacks on Israel by Palestinian armed group Hamas sparked the war still raging in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The footage of Monday’s incident, shared on social media, appears to be taken from a security camera and shows an armoured vehicle slowly driving over what seems to be a lifeless body.
The vehicle then stops, restarts and drives off, crushing the body again with its back wheels.
Israel has occupied the West Bank, home to about three million Palestinians, since 1967. Some 490,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements deemed illegal under international law.
Israeli army raids and settler attacks have killed at least 334 people in the West Bank in the past three months, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry.
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