The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has admitted killing two Palestinian men and burying their bodies with a bulldozer after Al Jazeera published a video purportedly showing the incident Wednesday.
The men approached its “operational area” in central Gaza “in a suspicious manner” and didn’t respond to a warning shot, the IDF said in a statement to CNN. The Israelis killed them and bulldozed their bodies fearing they carried explosives, it said.
What the video shows: In the video, which is filmed from a distance and has been heavily edited, two men are seen walking along a beach in Gaza, apart from one another; both appear to be waving white flags, to symbolize surrender, as they cautiously approach a group of Israeli soldiers. The video shows one man walking toward the soldiers with his hands in the air. He passes out of view behind some sand and concrete. It’s not clear what happens to him next. The second man turns away from the soldiers. As he hurriedly walks away from the camera, he is seen being followed by an Israeli armored vehicle. Suddenly, he falls to the sand, apparently shot.
The video then cuts to another angle, a location that CNN has been unable to geolocate, where an Israeli military bulldozer is seen unceremoniously burying two bodies in sand and debris. It’s not clear whether the bodies shown in the second half of the film are the two men who were filmed at the start of the sequence. Al Jazeera claims the bodies are the same men.
Al Jazeera said in its commentary that the “giant bulldozer shovels the two bodies and buries them in sand and litter. The Israeli soldiers attempt to conceal the executions.”
CNN has asked Al Jazeera for an unedited copy of the footage. Al Jazeera said the incident happened near Al Rasheed Street in central Gaza. CNN geolocated the video and confirmed it showed the incident at the beach. Additional visual evidence – satellite imagery and videos – shows Israeli military engineering vehicles such as bulldozers were deployed there.
What Israel said: The edited video “represents two different incidents,” the IDF said.
“The first incident occurred in the southern part of the corridor. After the suspect did not respond to a warning shot, the (force) fired to his direction and he was shot and slightly wounded,” the IDF said, adding he was released after receiving medical treatment and questioning.
The second incident occurred in the northern part of the corridor and the two suspects were fired at after approaching Israeli forces “in a suspicious manner,” the IDF said.
“Two suspects with bags on their backs observed our forces and approached them, in a suspicious manner. After not responding to a warning shot, the forces conducted live fire towards them as a result of which they were killed. The bodies were moved from the area using the documented tool out of fear of [there] being explosives on the suspects and risk to the forces,” the IDF said.
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