Two Palestinians accused of 'collaborating' with Israel 'are beaten, executed at gunpoint and their corpses dragged through alleys before being hung from an electrical tower in the West Bank

Palestinian militants in the West Bank said they had killed two men accused of collaborating with Israeli authorities.

Two men were reportedly dragged through the Tulkarem refugee camp at around 9pm on Friday, accompanied by masked gunmen who shouted 'Collaborators, collaborators'.

The gunmen then beat both men and shot them about a dozen times before other people spat and stomped on their bodies, residents said.

The bodies of the two men were reportedly hung up as a warning, underlining growing fears of increased radicalisation as the war in Gaza continues.

Footage shared online, which could not be verified by Reuters press agency, showed two dead bodies hung from a wall and an electricity pylon in front of angry crowds.

Footage shared on social media showed the bodies of two men who were killed two men after being accused of collaborating with Israeli authorities and were reportedly hung up as a warning

Armed Palestinians join mourners during the funeral of seven men killed the previous day in clashes with Israeli forces in Tulkarem on November 15

A Palestinian militant holds a gun during the funeral of six Palestinians killed following an Israeli army operation at the Tulkarem refugee camp on November 22

A Palestinian security officer said a local militant group in the camp, in the northern town of Tulkarem, accused two Palestinians of helping Israeli security forces target the group in a major army raid that killed three key militants on November 6.

The two alleged informers were in their late 20s and early 30s, respectively, and one was from the camp, said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

A second Palestinian official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Palestinian security forces were aware of the incident. The public prosecutor's office said it would have details in the coming days about a police investigation into the killings.

The local militant group - affiliated with the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed offshoot of the secular nationalist Fatah party - posted a cryptic statement just after the two men were reported killed. 'We did not wrong them, but they wronged themselves,' it said.

The family of one of the accused informers sought to distance itself in a statement Saturday, calling its disgraced relative a 'malicious finger that we have cut off without regret'.

'We affirm our complete innocence,' the family added, 'and we won't allow anyone to blame us for his guilt.'

A Palestinian journalist in the camp, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said residents of the camp beat the corpses after the two were shot and killed by militants in the street.

Videos show hundreds of Palestinians flocking to the entrance of the camp, filming with their phones as men try to hang the mutilated corpses from an electrical tower.

It apparently proved too difficult and residents ended up tossing the bodies over the walls of a UN school in the camp, tying their feet to a chain link fence, the journalist said. They were not taken to the hospital, she said.

Israeli military vehicles are seen in the town of Tulkarem, West Bank, on November 22

Purported confession videos surfaced online from the Tulkarm Brigades Telegram channel supposedly showed the two men describing their recent interactions with Israeli intelligence officials who they said paid them thousands of dollars for information.

Israel's Shin Bet security service did not respond to the Associated Press's request for comment on the killings.

A statement from the Tulkarm Brigades, a group based in the West Bank city of Tulkarm that is associated with the Fatah faction, said there was 'no immunity for any informant or traitor'.

'We are on the lookout for him and we will hold him accountable,' it said, referring to any such person.

The Tulkarm Brigades statement said anyone who had been working with Israeli security services had until December 5 to come forward and repent.

The Independent Commission for Human Rights, a Palestinian rights group, issued a statement criticising extrajudicial killings but said Israeli authorities were responsible for recruiting Palestinian agents.

There was no comment from the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited governance in the West Bank, and no immediate comment from the Israeli security services.

This latest incident provided further signs of the growing tension in the occupied West Bank, which has seen a surge in violence since the start of the Gaza war as Israeli military raids have intensified.

Public execution-style killings of Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel have been rare in recent years but they were more common during the years of the Second Intifada uprising two decades ago.

The West Bank had already been experiencing the highest levels of unrest in decades during the 18 months preceding the attack, but the assault on Israel by Hamas gunmen on October 7 and the subsequent bombardment of Gaza by Israeli forces has lifted the pressure to new levels.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers over the past six weeks and security forces have carried out thousands of arrests, with repeated confrontations between troops and Palestinian protesters.

On Saturday, Israeli forces raided the northern Palestinian town of Qabatiya seeking to arrest militants, sparking a firefight and killing a locally prominent doctor, Shamekh Abu al-Rub, 25, Palestinian health officials said.

Mr Abu al-Rub was the son of Kamal Abu al-Rub, governor of the Palestinian city of Jenin.