After 2 Teenagers Are Killed in West Bank, Israeli Military Opens Inquiry

Middle East|After 2 Teenagers Are Killed in West Bank, Israeli Military Opens Inquiry

The Israeli military said it had begun an investigation after the Palestinian authorities reported that two teenagers were killed on Monday by soldiers in the West Bank.

The mayor of the West Bank city of Jenin, Mohammad Jarrar, said residents had gathered on the outskirts of a neighborhood that Israeli forces seized control of earlier this year. They were hoping to go in and retrieve some belongings, but soldiers approached the group and opened fire, killing the two teenagers, the mayor said.

The Palestinian Authority health ministry said that Islam Abdel Aziz Noah Majarmeh and Muhammad Sari Omar Maskala, both 14, were killed by Israeli gunfire and that two other youths were injured, one seriously.

The Israeli military said on Monday that its soldiers had been operating in Jenin and spotted “a gathering of several suspects” in an area under a closure order, where entry is prohibited. The military said that members of the group had “approached the soldiers and posed a threat to them,” and that the group members had not obeyed commands to keep their distance.

“After the suspects failed to comply with the instructions, the soldiers operated in accordance with standard operating procedures,” the military said. It said the shooting was “under review.”

The deaths of the Palestinian youths in the West Bank came after a day of violence in Israel. Six people were killed in Jerusalem on Monday morning after gunmen opened fire on residents waiting at a bus stop in a busy intersection.

The Israeli authorities said the gunmen were Palestinian. Hamas praised the shooting in Jerusalem but did not take responsibility for the attack. The office of the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the killings, denouncing “all forms of violence and terrorism, regardless of their source.”

Israel has, since January, maintained its longest-running presence in Jenin and other West Bank cities in decades, displacing thousands of residents.

The Israeli military has said that it is targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in the area. The two cities most deeply affected by the raids are Jenin and Tulkarm, which have long been controlled by the Palestinian Authority, an entity that many Palestinians and much of the international community had hoped would evolve into the government of a future state.

Aaron Boxerman and Fatima AbdulKarim contributed reporting.