United Nations, May 21 (RHC)-- A senior United Nations official has called for an investigation into the deaths of two Palestinian teenagers shot dead last week by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.

On Tuesday, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, the assistant UN secretary general for political affairs, urged an "independent and transparent" probe into the circumstances surrounding the boys' deaths. He told reporters: "It is of serious concern that initial information appears to indicate that the two Palestinians killed were both unarmed and appeared to pose no direct threat."

Musaab Nuwarah and Mohammed Udeh were shot during a demonstration marking the 66th anniversary of the Nakba Day, or the Day of Catastrophe, on May 15th outside Ofer prison near the city of Ramallah.

The Palestinian rights group Defense for Children International has released a closed circuit television footage showing the fatal shootings, which rights group B'Tselem says supported its findings that troops killed the teenagers without cause by firing live rounds from more than 200 meters away. The soldiers were in "zero danger" at the time, Sarit Michaeli of B'Tselem noted.

PLO Accuses Tel Aviv of Deliberately Executing Palestinian Teenagers

Hanan Ashrawi from the Palestine Liberation Organization has accused the Israeli regime of the "deliberate execution" of the two Palestinian teenagers. She told reporters: "In the strongest possible terms, we condemn the deliberate execution of two Palestinian teenagers who were fatally shot with live ammunition outside Ofer prison last week."

The senior Palestinian official added that the Tel Aviv regime's use of excessive and indiscriminate violence and live ammunition at non-violent Palestinian demonstrations "constitutes war crimes and crimes against humanity under international law."