More injured Palestinians told BBC Israeli troops forced them into jeeps

Two other Palestinian men injured during a military operation in the occupied West Bank last week told the BBC that Israeli soldiers forced them onto the bonnet of a military jeep and drove them along a village road – —Sometimes at high speeds.

Their accounts will come out in a few days Shot of Mujahid Abadi Balas, 23 Clutching onto the bonnet of what appeared to be the same Israeli military jeep sparked international outrage.

The BBC has now spoken to two men who claim to have been subjected to similar treatment during last Saturday’s operation in Jabaliyat, a suburb of Jenin.

Samir Dabaya, 25, who is being treated in hospital in Jenin, said he lay face down for several hours after being shot in the back by Israeli troops during Operation Jabariyat. The bleeding continued until soldiers came to assess him.

He said when they turned him over and found him alive, he was beaten with a gun, then picked up, carried to the Jeep and thrown on top.

“They took off my [trousers]. I originally wanted to keep the car, but [one soldier] Hit me in the face and tell me not to do it. Then he started driving,” he said. “I’m waiting for death.”

Samir showed us video footage from a monitor showing him lying half-naked in a speeding jeep with the number 1 clearly marked on its side.

The location appears to match where the operation occurred, but there is no date or time visible in the recording.

Another Palestinian man, Hesham Isleit, also told the BBC that he was shot twice during the Jabariyat operation and forced to board a military jeep marked No. 1.

He described “shooting from all directions” and said he tried to escape but was shot in the leg before an army unit arrived to pick him up and another man.

“They ordered us to stand up and take off our clothes,” he said. “Then they put us in the front of the jeep.”

It was so hot in the car that it felt “like it was on fire,” he said.

“I was barefoot and had no clothes on. I tried to put my hands on the jeep but couldn’t because it was hot inside. I told them it was hot and they forced me to keep going – telling me if I didn’t want to die , that’s what I should do.

We raised these charges with the Israeli army; it said the cases were under review.

In response to last week’s original video of Mujahid Abadi Baras, the Israeli military said his being tied to a jeep “violated orders and procedures” and that his case would be investigated.

“The actions of the troops in the video of the incident are inconsistent with the values ​​of the IDF,” the IDF said in a written response.

Mujahid told the BBC from his hospital bed that he had not expected to survive the experience and said his final prayers while lying on the moving vehicle.

He showed the BBC a second video, recorded at some distance, which appeared to support the claim that he was thrown into a car by Israeli soldiers.

“Once they make sure I don’t have anything on me [no weapon]”They got out of the jeep and started beating me on my face, head and injured areas,” he said. “The soldiers picked me up by my wrists and ankles, and then [swung me] Move left and right and throw me up in the air.

He said he fell to the ground, was picked up and shaken again before being thrown into a Jeep and driven to a nearby house.

The military said it arrested a wanted suspect in Jabaliyat over the weekend during an operation in which “terrorists opened fire on troops, who responded with live ammunition.”

Hesham said the house he and Mujahid were in that day belonged to Majd al-Azmi, a neighbor and friend who was arrested during the operation and remains in Israeli custody.

All three men said they were unarmed and were quickly released by the military after identity checks.

Israeli rights group Btselem has been tracking the cases.

Its spokesman, Shai Parnes, said violence by Israeli soldiers and settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank has reached record levels since the Hamas attack on October 7.

“It’s more radical, more cruel, more extreme,” he said. “Since October 7, more than 500 Palestinians have been killed – more than 100 of them minors – in daily incursions against Palestinian cities.”

Jenin has been a particular target of Israeli attacks since the Hamas attack on October 7, in which more than 120 Palestinians (civilians and fighters) were killed by Israeli soldiers.

But armed men still patrol the Jenin camp, where fighters backed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad are stationed, and residents of the town say the war shows no sign of letting up.

“What the military doesn’t know is that resistance is a deeply ingrained idea,” said one resident. “It doesn’t stop. If one of them is killed, five others will take his place.

In an Israeli operation this week, bombs buried deep in the roads surrounding the camp hit two troops entering the camp, killing one soldier and wounding 16 others.

The fighting began long before the Gaza war, but tactics and attitudes are changing here, and the conduct of Israeli forces in the West Bank is also under scrutiny.

This is a different territory than Gaza, but they are the same enemy and locked in the same broader war.