Israeli Defense Forces officials have launched an investigation after troops were filmed apparently shoving the bodies of three dead Palestinians from a roof of a building in the town of Qabatiya in the occupied West Bank.
"This is a serious incident that does not coincide with IDF values and the expectations from IDF soldiers." the IDF said in a statement Friday. "The incident is under review."
Three soldiers were filmed dragging, pushing, throwing and in one case kicking what appear to be dead men off the edge of the roof Thursday in the town near Jenin, according to multiple media reports. The corpses were then reportedly removed by an Israeli bulldozer.
The incident was filmed by a number of residents in the town, according to CNN.
An Associated Press reporter who witnessed the incident said that Israeli snipers shot four men on the roof of the building.
In one case Israeli soldiers held an apparently lifeless body by its limbs and swung it over the edge.
The IDF said four "militants" were killed in an "exchange of gunfire" during a "counterterrorism operation" in Qabatiya, and that three others were killed after a drone strike on a car. It wasn't immediately clear what happened to the other bodies.
Zakaria Zakarneh, the uncle of one of the dead men, said he saw what happened.
Israeli soldiers "threw" the dead men to the ground, he told Reuters. "I was in pain, very sad and angry that I was unable to do anything," he recounted.
Scenes from videotapes of the incident were later aired by Palestinian news organizations.
U.S. officials, who viewed the videotapes, immediately reached out to Israeli authorities, who vowed investigate.
"We found it deeply disturbing. If it's proven to be authentic, it clearly would depict abhorrent and egregious behavior by professional soldiers," White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters in a briefing.
