IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir on Monday night ordered IDF Central Command Chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth to further probe the incident last week when IDF soldiers killed two Palestinians in Jenin after a video showed them to have appeared to have surrendered.
Zamir qualified that Bluth's probe could proceed only after the newly sworn-in Military Advocate General, Maj. Gen. Itay Offir, decides whether to indict the soldiers involved.
The soldiers involved are already being criminally probed by the military police.
IDF soldiers said Palestinians posed danger after fleeing
They have claimed that the two Palestinians only initially surrendered, but that then, when the Palestinians fled back into the structure where they had hidden from the soldiers for hours, this created a danger to their lives.
Despite their claims, the video appears to show an extended period of communications between the sides, and the Palestinians taking many actions to show they were unarmed, including lifting their shirts.
Even when the Palestinian "fled", it was crawling away slowly, such that the soldiers arguably could have shot them in their legs or otherwise used non-lethal force to prevent them from fleeing.