Qabatiya, West Bank — Israeli soldiers pushed three apparently lifeless bodies from rooftops during a raid in the northern part of the occupied West Bank on Thursday, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene and video obtained by AP.

An AP journalist in the town of Qabatiya witnessed three soldiers push the bodies off the roofs of adjacent multi-story buildings, sending them falling out of view. It was the latest in a series of suspected violations by Israeli forces since the start of the Israel-Hamas war that rights groups say show a pattern of excessive force toward Palestinians.

“This is a serious incident that does not coincide with IDF values and the expectations from IDF soldiers,” the military said in a statement, using the acronym it goes by. “The incident is under review.”

Israel said its troops had killed four militants during operations in Qabatiya on Thursday.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah did not immediately confirm multiple deaths, but said one person had been killed in the town and that Israeli gunfire sent 10 Palestinians to the hospital.

In the video obtained by AP, three soldiers can be seen picking up what appears to be a stiff body and then dragging it toward the edge of a roof as troops stand on the ground below. The soldiers on the roof peer over the edge before heaving the body off.

On an adjacent rooftop, the soldiers hold another apparently lifeless body by its limbs and swing it over the edge. In a third instance, a soldier kicks a body toward the edge before it falls from view. Photos captured by AP during Thursday’s raid show an Israeli army bulldozer moving near the buildings where the bodies were dropped.

Other journalists at the scene also witnessed the bodies being pushed off the roofs.

The identities of the dead and the cause of their deaths were not immediately known.

When withdrawing from raids, the army usually leaves behind any Palestinians killed by Israeli gunfire. Occasionally the army brings dead bodies into Israel.

Under international law, soldiers are supposed to ensure dead bodies, including those of enemy combatants, are treated decently.

“There is no military need to do this. It’s just a savage way of treating Palestinian bodies,” said Shawan Jabarin, the director of Palestinian rights group Al-Haq, after watching the video.

Jabarin said the video was shocking but not surprising, and he was doubtful Israel would properly investigate the incident. The Israeli military rarely prosecutes soldiers in cases of reported harm to Palestinians, rights groups say.

“The most that will happen is that soldiers will be disciplined, but there will be no real investigation and no real prosecution,” said Jabarin.

Israeli forces have been accused of abuse of force in the West Bank and Gaza since the war in the smaller Palestinian territory was sparked by its Hamas rulers’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack. That includes accusations of opening fire on civilians in Gaza waiting to receive food aid, and the alleged mistreatment of young Palestinian prisoners.

Human rights organizations have accused both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes in Gaza since the war began, and the United Nations’ highest court, the International Court of Justice, is currently investigating allegations brought by South Africa that Israel is committing the crime of genocide with its actions in Gaza. Israel has condemned the accusation as a “false and baseless” defense of Hamas and it requested in January that the ICJ dismiss the case, but the investigation continues.

The AP reporter who witnessed the raid saw a blindfolded and shirtless Palestinian man kneeling before an Israeli army jeep and armed soldiers. Smoke billowed from several buildings that appeared damaged.

As the world’s attention focuses on the far more deadly war in Gaza less than 80 miles away, scores of Palestinians have been killed, shot and arrested in the West Bank, where the Israeli military has waged a monthslong crackdown.

More than 700 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire since the war erupted on Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The northern West Bank has seen some of the worst violence since the war’s outbreak.

Israel says the raids are necessary to stamp out militancy, which has flared since Oct. 7. In that time, Palestinian gunmen have attacked Israelis at checkpoints and staged several attacks within Israel.

Earlier this month, Israel staged its deadliest raid into the northern West Bank since the war began, killing at least 33 people.

Warsaw, Poland — European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday pledged billions of euros in aid for Central European countries that suffered enormous damage to infrastructure and housing during the massive flooding that has so far claimed 24 lives in the region. Von der Leyen paid a quick visit to a flood-damaged area in southeast Poland and met with heads of the governments of the affected countries — Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

She said funds will be made available quickly for infrastructure repair from the EU’s solidarity fund, as well as 10 billion euros ($11 billion) from what is called the cohesion fund — for the most urgent repairs. In a special approach, no co-financing will be required from these countries for the money to be released.

“Here we say it’s 100% European money, no co-financing,” von der Leyen told a news briefing. “These are extraordinary times, and extraordinary times need extraordinary measures.”

Meanwhile, a massive flood wave threatened new areas and heavy rains also caused flooding and forced the evacuation of some 1,000 people in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. In Central Europe, the receding waters revealed the scale of the destruction caused by exceptionally heavy rains that began a week ago.

Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakušan said one more person was reported killed on Thursday in the country’s hard-hit northeast, bringing the death toll there to five. There were also seven deaths each in Poland and Romania, and five in Austria — with the overall death toll now at 24.

Authorities deployed troops to help. In the northeast Czech Republic, soldiers joined firefighters and other emergency crews to help with the recovery efforts. Army helicopters distributed humanitarian aid while soldiers were building temporary bridges in place of those that were swept away.

Some 400 people remained evacuated from the homes in the regional capital of Ostrava. In the southwest, the level of the Luznice River reached an extreme high but the evacuation of 1,000 people in the town of Veseli nad Luznici was not necessary for the moment, officials said.

Cleanup efforts were underway in Austria, where flooding washed away roads and led to landslides and bridge damage. Firefighters and soldiers pumped water and mud out of houses and disposed of damaged furniture, broadcaster ORF quoted fire department spokesperson Klaus Stebal as saying.

The governor of Lower Austria province, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, said reconstruction was expected to take years, according to the Austria Press Agency.

The Vienna public transport company has had to pump almost 1 million liters (260,000 gallons) of water since last weekend. Ten towns and areas were still inaccessible on Thursday, APA reported.

In Hungary, flood waters continued to rise as authorities closed roads and rail stations. Ferries along the Danube River halted. 

In the capital, Budapest, water spilled over the city’s lower quays and threatened to reach tram and metro lines. Some transport services were suspended. Remarkable images showed the water of the Danube creeping up perilously close to the ground floor of Hungary’s Parliament building, which sits directly on its bank.

Further upriver, in a region known as the Danube Bend, homes and restaurants near the riverbanks were inundated.

Nearly 6,000 professionals, including members of Hungary’s water authority and military, were mobilized, and prison inmates were involved in filling sandbags, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at a news conference Thursday.

The Danube stood at over 25 feet, approaching the 29.2-foot record set during major flooding in 2013.

In southwestern Poland, the high waters reached the city of Wroclaw and an extended wave was expected to take many hours, even days to pass, exerting pressure on the embankments.

The water level on the Oder River just before Wroclaw was 21 feet, some 6.5 feet above alarm levels but still lower compared to the disastrous flooding in 1997.

In the two most-affected towns, Stronie Slaskie and Ladek-Zdroj, tap water and power were restored, said Gen. Michal Kamieniecki, who was put in charge of the recovery operations there after an emotional appeal to Prime Minister Donald Tusk for help the day before by a young woman identified only as Katarzyna.

As concerns mounted, Tusk invited von der Leyen to Wroclaw to see the situation first hand. Government leaders from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria were also there.

In Italy, rivers flooded in the provinces of Ravenna, Bologna and Forlì-Cesena, as local mayors asked people to stay on the upper floors or leave their houses. Those areas were hit by devastating floods in 2023, when more than 20 rivers overflowed, killing 17 people.

Italy’s vice minister for transport and infrastructure, Galeazzo Bignami, said Thursday that two people were reported missing in Bagnocavallo, in Ravenna province.

At least 800 residents in Ravenna and almost 200 in Bologna province spent the night in shelters, schools and sports centers. Trains were suspended and schools closed while residents were advised to avoid travel.