The Israeli military said Friday it is investigating an incident after videos posted to social media and recirculated by news organizations appear to show members of Israel Defense Forces pushing dead bodies off a roof during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Thursday.
The incident took place in the town of Qabatiya, west of Jenin, where the Israeli army has been conducting raids against Hamas militants in recent weeks.
Multiple videos of the incident have been circulating, and in one version, Israeli soldiers can be seen dragging, pushing, throwing and in one case kicking what appear to be three dead men off the edge of a building.
An Associated Press journalist was at the scene in Qabatiya and witnessed the incident. Another witness who said he was uncle to one of the dead men told the Reuters news service the soldiers had gone to the roof after the men had been killed.
The IDF said it had opened an investigation.
“This is a serious incident that is not in line with IDF values and what is expected of IDF soldiers,” it said in a statement.
Separately, the military said its soldiers had killed seven militants in gun battles and an airstrike in Qabatiya on Thursday.
U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday at the White House he had seen at least one of the videos, and found it disturbing.
“And if it's proven to be authentic, it clearly would depict abhorrent and egregious behavior by professional soldiers,” said Kirby.
He said U.S. officials reached out immediately to their Israeli counterparts and pressed them for details.
“They have assured us that they're going to investigate this and that there will be proper accountability if it's warranted,” Kirby said. “And we're going to be very eager to see what the IDF investigation finds. And as always, we expect that an investigation be done thoroughly and transparently.”
Meanwhile, fighting continued Friday in Gaza, where officials say at least 15 people were killed overnight and into the day in Israeli strikes to the south in Rafah and north and central areas, including Gaza City.
U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday during a Cabinet meeting at the White House that he has not given up hope for a cease-fire agreement.
“We're continuing to try to do what we've tried from the beginning, to make sure that both the people in northern Israel, as well as southern Lebanon, are able to go back to their homes and go back safely,” Biden told reporters, flanked by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
“And the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, our whole team is working with the intelligence community to try to get that done,” the president added. “We're going to keep at it till we get it done. But we've got a way to go.”
Hamas killed 1,200 people and captured some 250 hostages in their October 7 terror attack on Israel that sparked the current war. Israel says it believes Hamas is still holding 101 hostages, including 35 the military says are dead.
Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the territory's health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
Hamas has been designated a terror group by the United States, the U.K. and other Western countries.
Nearly three-quarters of Gaza's 2.3 million population is displaced, and nearly the entire population is at risk of famine, according to the United Nations.
Jeff Seldin and Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
