'Yamas' Unit of Israeli Border Police Filmed Executing Captive Palestinians Yousef Asasa, Al-Muntasir Abdullah After Surrendering
Background on the Israel Police's West Bank Border Police's 'Yamas' Unit
The "Yamas" unit of the Israeli Border Police is a special forces unit that typically operates in the occupied West Bank, Palestine, under the command of the IDF's Central Command, although its members are civilian officers of the Israel (National) Police. The unit, whose name is an acronym for a phrase loosely translated from Hebrew as "Disguised as Arabs Unit," is known for undercover operations. It also regularly conducts uniformed operations alongside regular IDF units and the Israel Security Agency ("Shin Bet").
Extrajudicial Killings of Yousef Asasa and Al-Muntasir Billah Abdullah
Video evidence revealed how the Yamas Unit executed two Palestinian men, Yousef Asasa (37) and Al-Muntasir Billah Abdullah (26), on November 27, 2025, after they had surrendered and demonstrated they were unarmed.
On November 26, 2025, three Israeli Defense Forces ("IDF") brigades, together with the Yamas unit of the Israel Police and agents of the Shin Bet, embarked on what was described as a broad operation called "Five Stones" in the northern West Bank, with a declared goal of disrupting Palestinian militant networks in the area. On November 27, the second day of the operation, under the command of the IDF's Menashe Brigade, large numbers of Israeli forces, including the Yamas unit, entered the Palestinian West Bank city of Jenin.
According to a statement published by the IDF, its forces surrounded a building in the city where they believed two wanted men, alleged to be militants with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, were located. The Israeli forces began to implement what is referred to as the "pressure cooker" procedure, in which they surround a building, call for the inhabitants to exit and surrender, shoot light weapons, shoulder fired missiles and tank shells, toward the building, and then begin to demolish it, all while the wanted person is still inside—ostensibly to force them out.
In this case, according to the IDF statement, Yousef Asasa (37) and Al-Muntasir Billah Abdullah (26) exited the building after the demolition stage of the procedure began.
Video footage of the raid shows Asasa and Abdullah exiting the building with their hands up, lifting their shifts to show they are unarmed, and subsequently kneeling and crouching as Border Police officers surround them with weapons drawn. Shortly thereafter, the Israeli Border Police officers begin kicking Asasa and Abdullah and order them to move back toward the building, from which they exited moments earlier. The Yamas unit officers, identifiable by their police (as opposed to military) uniforms, then opened fire, killing both men from mere feet away. Israeli government statements confirmed that the Yamas unit carried out the killings.
Neither of the men, whom Israeli officers had already verified were unarmed, appeared to pose a threat to the Israeli forces and appear to be in their effective custody and control. A day later, a spokesperson for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk described the "brazen killing" as "an apparent summary execution."
The information in this submission meets the standards for Leahy vetting, which weigh the credibility of sources and the veracity of allegations based on: past accuracy and reliability of the reporting sources; the investigative methods utilized by those sources, including first-hand interviews, video evidence, and witness testimonies; broad corroboration of the reported information; and the level of detail of the allegations of gross violations of human rights (GVHR), including identification of the units, operational units involved, and the victims.
Gross Violation of Human Rights: Extrajudicial Killing
The Leahy law prohibits U.S. assistance to a foreign security force unit when there is "credible information" that it has committed gross violations of human rights and the government has failed to remediate the unit. In a State Department manual for Leahy vetting, extrajudicial killing is listed as one of the four most common types of GVHRs, alongside torture, forced disappearance, and rape under the color of the law. The manual defines extrajudicial killing as: "A deliberate killing of an individual, carried out under color of law, and not authorized by a previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court after a trial affording all requisite fair trial and appeal guarantees."
The deliberate killing of Asasa and Abdullah after they were detained, shown to be disarmed, and in the effective custody of Israeli security forces, constitutes an extrajudicial killing under international human rights law, as defined by the State Department. Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibits the arbitrary deprivation of life, meaning no one should be killed outside of a legal framework, with judicial guarantees. Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.
Ben Gvir's Response: 'Terrorists Should Die'
The Leahy Law requires banning a foreign security force unit from receiving U.S. assistance if there is credible information it has committed a GVHR, and the host country has not taken "effective steps," such as "impartial and thorough investigations, credible judicial or administrative adjudications, and appropriate and proportional sentencing," to bring to justice those responsible for GVHRs. Although the Israeli Justice Department has stated that it will investigate the incident, units credibly implicated in gross violations of human rights are immediately ineligible for U.S. assistance until remediation is complete pursuant to standard the State Department's Leahy Law procedures.
Extensive documentation and investigations over the past several decades show that such promised Israeli investigations are a sham and virtually never result in any meaningful accountability for widespread and systematic human rights violations by Israeli security forces. Combined with barefaced support for these specific killings by Israeli government officials, there is great certainty that Israel will never bring the involved officers or their unit to justice.
Responding to the footage of the killings, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who is responsible for overseeing the Israel Police, including its Border Police and the Yamas unit, wrote on X: "The [officers] acted exactly as they are expected to — terrorists must die!" A day after the killing of Asasa and Abdullah, Ben Gvir traveled personally to the Yamas unit's base and announced that he was promoting its commander, identified only by his first initial, "K."
The UN rights chief's spokesperson, Jeremy Laurence, said Ben Gvir's response, "[raises] serious concerns about the credibility of any future review or investigation conducted by any entity that is not fully independent from the Government."
There is extensive documentation of the unwillingness and ineffectiveness of Israeli authorities investigating and prosecuting their own soldiers and police officers when they harm Palestinians. Between the start of the Second Intifada in the early 2000s and late 2016, Israeli security forces had killed more than 2,000 Palestinians in law enforcement scenarios (excluding major military operations). However, only eight soldiers and six police officers were convicted of killing offences during that time period. Israeli forces have killed over 1,000 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank alone between October 2023 and October 2025, and DAWN is not aware of a single conviction for a killing offence related to any of those deaths.
The State Department Has Failed to Enforce the Leahy Law Against Israel
The Leahy Law, passed in 1997, prohibits U.S. assistance to foreign security force units credibly implicated in gross human rights violations if the country receiving U.S. security assistance fails to take effective steps to bring to justice those responsible for GVHRs. Despite extensive documentation of Israeli forces committing gross human rights violations from credible sources, including the State Department's own Annual Human Rights Reports, the State Department has never prohibited a single Israeli unit from receiving assistance.
A federal lawsuit recently filed with the assistance of DAWN seeks to compel the State Department to obey the Leahy Law with respect to Israel. Were the State Department to faithfully and fully enforce the Leahy Law with respect to Israel, the lawsuit asserts, many, if not most Israeli security forces units would be found ineligible for U.S. military assistance in light of the vast scale of abuses and the Israeli government's failure to take appropriate steps for remediation.
According to the Washington Post, the State Department's Office of Inspector General recently found that Israeli security forces have committed "many hundreds" of potential grave violations of human rights. The number of incidents is so great that it would take "multiple years" to review them for potential Leahy Law sanctions, according to the report.
The State Department should enforce the Leahy Law and prohibit the Israeli Border Police's Yamas unit from receiving assistance, given the credible evidence of the extrajudicial killings of Asasa and Abdullah.
