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2002 Israeli military operation

Operation Defensive Shield

Part of the Second Intifada

Israeli soldiers taking cover behind an M113 APC in Qalqilya, April 2002

Date

March 29 – May 10, 2002

Location

Israeli-occupied West Bank (Palestinian territories)

Result

Inconclusive

IDF withdraws from the Palestinian enclaves in the West Bank
Temporary drop in Palestinian attacks
Second Intifada continues until 2005

Belligerents

Israel

Palestinian Authority

Commanders and leaders

Ariel Sharon
Shaul Mofaz
Yitzhak Eitan

Yasser Arafat
Mahmoud Tawalbe †

Units involved

Israel Defense Forces

Israeli Ground Forces

Palestinian National Security Forces
Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
Tanzim
al-Qassam Brigades

Al-Quds Brigades

Strength

20,000

10,000

Casualties and losses

30 killed
127 wounded

497 killed (per UN reports)
1,447 wounded
7,000 detained

Hebron class=notpageimage| Cities in the West Bank that saw major combat during Operation Defensive Shield

v t e Second Intifada
October 2000 events MV Santorini MV Karine A Defensive Shield Jenin Bethlehem Nablus Determined Path Wadi an-Nasara Rainbow Days of Penitence Lists Suicide attacks Rocket attacks

Second Intifada

Lists

Operation Defensive Shield (Hebrew: מִבְצָע חוֹמַת מָגֵן Mīvtzāh Ḥōmat Māgēn) was a 2002 Israeli military operation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank during the Second Intifada. Lasting for just over a month, it was the largest combat operation in the West Bank since the start of Israel's occupation in 1967.

The operation began with an Israeli incursion into Ramallah, where Yasser Arafat was placed under siege at his compound. This was followed by successive incursions into the six largest cities in the West Bank and their surrounding localities. Israel's military moved into Tulkarm and Qalqilya on April 1, into Bethlehem on April 2, and into Jenin and Nablus on April 3. From April 3–21, Israeli forces enforced strict curfews on the civilian Palestinian populations in the West Bank, and restricted movements of international personnel, including, prohibition of entry to humanitarian and medical personnel as well as human rights monitors and journalists.

In May 2002, Israeli troops withdrew from Palestinian cities in the West Bank while maintaining cordons of troops around certain towns and villages, and also continued carrying out raids on Palestinian-populated areas.

The United Nations' report on the subject states: "Combatants on both sides conducted themselves in ways that, at times, placed civilians in harm's way. Much of the fighting during Operation Defensive Shield occurred in areas heavily populated by civilians and in many cases heavy weaponry was used."

Background

The Israeli–Palestinian conflict escalated during the Second Intifada. In January and February 2002, 71 people were killed on all sides during attacks from Palestinian terrorists and the Israeli army. March and April 2002 saw a dramatic increase in attacks against Israelis by Palestinian militants such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. In addition to numerous shooting and grenade attacks, fifteen suicide bombings were carried out in March, an average of one suicide bombing every two days. March 2002 became known in Israel as "Black March". The large number of attacks severely disrupted daily life in Israel.

The first wave of Israeli incursions took place between 27 February and 14 March. Following nine attacks by Palestinian militants between March 2–5, the Israeli cabinet decided to massively expand its military activity against these groups. On March 5, while talking with reporters in the Knesset cafeteria, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, pointing to the bloodiest week against Israelis since the start of the Second Intifada, explained the cabinet's decision: "The Palestinians must be hit, and it must be very painful. ... We must cause them losses, victims, so that they feel a heavy price."

Palestinian attacks continued, with suicide bombings on 9 March (see Café Moment bombing), 20 March, and 21 March. Shooting and grenade attacks also continued to occur in Israel and Israeli settlements. On 27 March, a suicide attack occurred in Netanya, where 30 people were killed in the Park Hotel while celebrating Passover. The event became known as the Passover massacre. The following day, a Palestinian gunman infiltrated the Israeli settlement of Elon Moreh and killed four members of the same family.

On March 29, the Israeli government announced Operation Defensive Shield, terming it a large-scale counter-terrorist offensive. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued emergency call-up notices for 30,000 reserve soldiers, the largest call-up since the 1982 Lebanon War. The same day, two Israelis were stabbed in the Gaza settlement of Netzarim. Two suicide bombings occurred the next day, and another one took place the day after that.

Overall, in March 2002, some 130 Israelis including approximately 100 noncombatants were killed in Palestinian attacks, while a total of 238 Palestinians including at least 83 noncombatants were killed in the same month by the IDF.

Stated goals

The stated goals of the operation (as conveyed to the Israeli Knesset by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on April 8, 2002) were:

to catch and arrest terrorists and, primarily, their dispatchers and those who finance and support them; to confiscate weapons intended to be used against Israeli citizens; to expose and destroy facilities and explosives, laboratories, weapons production factories and secret installations. The orders are clear: target and paralyze anyone who takes up weapons and tries to oppose our troops, resists them or endangers them—and to avoid harming the civilian population.

IDF officers also noted that incursions would force Palestinian militants "to exert their energy by defending their homes in the camps instead of by plotting attacks on Israelis." The Palestinian attachment to the UN report on Operation Defensive Shield challenged the validity of the Israeli claim that it was targeting "terrorists," noting that,

the record shows clearly that the nature of the actions taken, the amount of harm inflicted on the population and the practical results prove completely different political goals the Israeli occupying forces have consistently targeted the Palestinian police and security forces, instead of "terrorists", and have consistently tried to destroy the Palestinian Authority and declared it an "enemy", instead of groups hostile to peace in the Middle East.

Operation

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Operation Defensive Shield was announced on March 29, but it is widely assumed preparations began nearly a month before. In early April, the IDF was conducting major military operations inside all Palestinian cities, but the majority of the fighting centered on Bethlehem, Jenin, Nablus, and Ramallah. Over 20,000 Israeli reservists were activated during the conflict.

Jenin

Nablus

Bethlehem

IDF forces including the Jerusalemite Reserve Infantry Brigade entered Jerusalem with infantry, warplanes, and tanks while a special forces Shaldag Unit targeted the Church of the Nativity to deny it to the people of Bethlehem as a place of refuge as it had been in the past. In response to the IDF offensive hundreds of Bethelemites including Bethlehem's Governor sought refuge in the church, the helicopters of the Shaldag unit arriving half an hour too late.

On April 3 the IDF laid siege to the church surrounding it with an elite paratrooper brigade specializing in sniper operations who used tactics including carrying out simulated attacks. The Vatican's top foreign policy expert Archbishop Jean-Louis Taura stated that while the Palestinians have joined the Vatican in bilateral agreements where they have undertaken to respect and maintain the status quo regarding Christian holy places and the rights of Christian communities, "to explain the gravity of the current situation, let me begin with the fact that the occupation of the holy places by armed men is a violation of a long tradition of law that dates back to the Ottoman era. Never before have they been occupied – for such a lengthy time – by armed men." For five weeks the Israelis held the city and church under curfew, with periodic breaks, continuing the siege on the church. Israeli snipers were given orders to shoot anyone in the church carrying a gun on sight, seriously wounding an Armenian monk who the IDF said looked armed, and killing the mentally impaired church bell-ringer who was shot as he left to ring the bells as he had done for three decades. He was left to die, bleeding in the square for hours. Six other men were killed by the IDF during the siege. On March 10 the siege ended, with a deal seeing some militants deported to the Gaza Strip, and the rest exiled to Cyprus.

Ramallah

Tulkarm

IDF Reserve Paratroop Battalion 55 entered Tulkarm with armored support. Palestinian militants abandoned their weapons and melted into the local population, and nine were killed by the IDF. A Tegart fort that had served as their headquarters was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike. The IDF also raided nearby villages, arresting hundreds of wanted men.

Hebron

On April 4, gendarmes from an Israel Border Police undercover unit surrounded a house in Hebron where a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades who supplied weapons to militants was holed up, along with his brother. The gendarmes demanded that the two men surrender. Shots were fired at the troops, killing one of the gendarmes. After a gun battle lasting several hours, troops stormed the house, discovering the suspect's wounded brother. The arms merchant was found to have fled.

European Union reaction

Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Piqué, whose country held the EU Presidency, said that "sanctions against Israel are a possible scenario", and that EU states were discussing the possibility, with some reluctant and others wanting to impose sanctions. Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel also said that the EU could rethink its trade relations with Israel. The European Parliament passed a non-binding resolution calling for economic sanctions on Israel, an arms embargo on both parties, and for the European Union to "suspend immediately" its trade and cooperation agreement with Israel. It condemned the "military escalation pursued by the Sharon government" and the "oppression of the Palestinian civilian population by the Israeli army", while also condemning suicide bombings. According to Yediot Aharonot, Israel's refusal to allow Spanish EU officials Javier Solana and Josep Piqué into the Mukataa to meet with Yasser Arafat, while allowing American envoy Anthony Zinni to enter, was the "straw that broke the camel's back". The resolution was passed by a vote of 269 to 208, with 22 abstentions.

Casualties

During the fighting, 497 Palestinians were killed and 1,447 were wounded, according to a United Nations investigation, while 30 Israeli soldiers were killed and 127 were wounded. However, the human rights group B'Tselem only registered 240 Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in the West Bank during the period in which the operation took place. Approximately 7,000 Palestinians were detained by Israel including 396 wanted suspects.

The World Bank estimated that over $361 million worth of damage was caused to Palestinian infrastructure and institutions, $158 million of which came from the aerial bombardment and destruction of houses in Nablus and Jenin.

Strategic outcome

The effects of Operation Defensive Shield, as recorded by the Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, were an initial drop in half (46 percent) in the number of suicide bombings – from 22 in February–March to 12 in April–May – and a 70 percent drop in executed attacks between the first half of 2002 and the second half (43 January–June, 13 July–December). While 2003 had a total of 25 executed suicide bombings in comparison to 56 in 2002, the main difference was the number of attacks which did not come to realization (184) either due to Israeli interception or problems in the execution. 2003 also saw a 35 percent drop in the number of fatalities from 220 deaths in 2002 to 142 deaths resulting from suicide bombings.

Beverly Milton-Edwards, Professor of Politics at Queen's University in Belfast, writes that while aspects of Palestinian terrorism were reduced after the operation, Israel's objective of ending the Al-Aqsa Intifada remained unmet. Israeli destruction of institutions belonging to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the "emasculation" of the PA and its President, Yasser Arafat, opened a vacuum in the social and welfare system that was rapidly filled by the Hamas, whose popularity grew. Milton-Edwards concludes that, "The unequivocal victory eventually remained elusive and the Israelis and Palestinians resumed a variety of forms of low intensity warfare with each other."

Fact-finding and criticism

UN fact-finding mission

A UN fact-finding mission was established under UN Security Council Resolution 1405 (April 19, 2002) into Operation Defensive Shield following Palestinian charges that a massacre had occurred in Jenin, which later proved to be false. In its attachment to the UN report the Palestinian Authority decried Israel's "culture of impunity" and called for "an international presence to monitor compliance with international humanitarian law, to help in providing protection to Palestinian civilians and to help the parties to implement agreements reached."

A report of the European Union attached in the report stated, "The massive destruction, especially at the centre of the refugee camp, to which all heads of mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah can testify, shows that the site had undergone an indiscriminate use of force, that goes well beyond that of a battlefield."

The report states that there were numerous reports of the IDF using Palestinians as human shields. Israel denied the allegations.

EU on Hamas Human Shields Usage

The European Union condemned the usage of human shields by Hamas. The EU also condemned calls calling for Gazan civilian populations to provide themselves as human shields.

Human rights groups

Human Rights Watch determined that "Israeli forces committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, some amounting prima facie to war crimes."

Amnesty International reported that war crimes occurred in the Jenin refugee camp and in Nablus, including: unlawful killings; a failure to ensure medical or humanitarian relief; demolition of houses and property occurred (sometime with civilians still inside); water and electricity supplies to civilians were cut; torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in arbitrary detention occurred; and Palestinians civilians were used for military operations or as "human shields." According to Amnesty, "the IDF acted as though the main aim was to punish all Palestinians."

Destruction of infrastructure and property

Scholars have noted "the Israeli military systematically destroy West Bank infrastructure, including roads, water-treatment and power-generating plants, and telecommunications facilities, as well as official database and documents" during the Operation.

Destruction of Palestinian Authority property

The UN report noted that "United Nations agencies and other international agencies, when allowed into Ramallah and other Palestinian cities, documented extensive physical damage to Palestinian Authority civilian property. That damage included the destruction of office equipment, such as computers and photocopying machines, that did not appear to be related to military objectives. While denying that such destruction was systematic, the Israeli Defence Forces have admitted that their personnel engaged in some acts of vandalism, and are carrying out some related prosecutions."

Cheryl Rubenberg writes that data and records held by Palestinian civilian institutions were systematically destroyed by the IDF; among the institutions affected were the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the Palestinian Authority's Ministries of Culture, Education and Health, and the Palestine International Bank.

Amira Hass, an Israeli reporter for Haaretz, criticized the IDF for targeting computer files and printed records, dubbing the offensive "Operation Destroy the Data". She wrote that "this was not a mission to search and destroy the terrorist infrastructure. ... There was a decision made to vandalize the civic, administrative, cultural infrastructure developed by Palestinian society".

Destruction of non-governmental property

Large-scale destruction was reported of properties of NGOs, media, universities, cultural centers, and other institutions. Complete libraries and archives, including video and music archives, as well as equipment were looted, vandalized and destroyed. Also demolition of shops and a religious compound were reported.

Jenin massacre allegations

A great deal of the media attention to Operation Defensive Shield centered around Palestinians claims of a large-scale massacre in Jenin. Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat was widely quoted by the press as saying there were 500 massacred Palestinians in the Israeli assault on Jenin.

Human Rights Watch found no evidence to sustain claims of massacres or large-scale extrajudicial executions by the IDF in Jenin refugee camp. However, many of the civilian deaths documented amounted to unlawful or willful killings by the IDF according to Human Rights Watch. Many others could have been avoided if the IDF had taken proper precautions to protect civilian life during its military operation, as required by international humanitarian law. Among the civilian deaths were those of Kamal Zgheir, a 57-year-old man who was shot and run over by a tank on a major road outside the camp on April 10, even though he had a white flag attached to his wheelchair; 58-year-old Mariam Wishahi, killed by a missile in her home on April 6 just hours after her unarmed son was shot in the street; Jamal Fayid, a 37-year-old paralyzed man who was crushed in the rubble of his home on April 7 despite his family's pleas to be allowed to remove him; and fourteen-year-old Faris Zaiban, who was killed by fire from an IDF armored car as he went to buy groceries when the IDF-imposed curfew was temporarily lifted on April 11. Human Rights Watch stated that of at least 52 Palestinians were killed, at least 27 were suspected to have been armed Palestinian militants.

Multiple deaths were also caused by refusal (whether enforced by militia groups or voluntary is disputed) of Palestinian families to leave their houses, of which specific bulldozers, clearing the way for operations, were not alerted of on a house-to-house basis (See Israel–Gaza war 2008–2009 for similar issues; where IDF warnings were continually issued that specific houses carrying munitions were to be targeted, with Hamas response of forcing families to remain inside their houses.)

Initially Israel welcomed an investigation, announcing that it would cooperate fully with the Secretary General's fact-finding effort. According to the United Jewish Communities, Israel made a number of points regarding the team's methodology, in order to "safeguard the impartiality of its work." However, Israeli government receptivity to cooperating with the UN fact-finding mission decreased when the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, did not appoint a predominantly technical team with specialized military and forensic expertise, but rather political-administrative figures without such specialized skills (including Cornelio Sommaruga, controversial for previous "Red Swastika" remarks), and after Palestinian officials reduced the casualty toll in Jenin on May 1, 2002 to be between 50 and 60 deaths while Israel maintained there were only seven or eight civilian casualties. The charges of a massacre which had sparked demands for a U.N. investigation, had now been dropped. Kofi Annan disbanded the UN fact-finding team in Jenin supposed to determine whether a massacre had taken place with the comment that "learly the full cooperation of both sides was a precondition for this, as was a visit to the area itself to see the Jenin refugee camp at first hand and to gather information. This is why the Secretariat engaged in a thorough clarification process with the Israeli delegation."

In 2002, Mohammed Bakri, a prominent Arab actor and Israeli citizen, directed and produced a documentary Jenin, Jenin, to portray "the Palestinian truth" about the Battle of Jenin. In the documentary Bakri propagates that indeed a massacre of civilians occurred in Jenin. A French Jewish film maker, Pierre Rehov, also directed a documentary on what happened in Jenin during Defensive Shield. His film, The Road to Jenin, was produced to counter the claims of a massacre, and to counter the narrative of Mohammed Bakri. CAMERA made a review of the two documentary films. According to the review, Bakri has admitted to shortening his film by 25 min in the wake of criticism.

Reported first-hand allegations

David Rohde of The New York Times on the April 16 reported:

Saed Dabayeh, who said he stayed in the camp through the fighting, led a group of reporters to a pile of rubble where he said he watched from his bedroom window as Israeli soldiers buried 10 bodies. "There was a hole here where they buried bodies," he said. "And then they collapsed a house on top of it." The Palestinian accounts could not be verified. "The smell of decomposing bodies hung over at least six heaps of rubble today, and weeks of excavation may be needed before an accurate death toll can be made."

Stewart Bell of the National Post on the April 15 reported that Ahmed Tibi, an Arab member of the Israeli Knesset, said he had met hundreds of Palestinians displaced by what he termed the "massacre" in Jenin. According to Tibi, "Everyone has a tragedy, about executions they saw, about their whole family that was killed, about the most tangible concern—where is my family?" Bell reported that Jenin's population recounted "vivid accounts" of fighting and homes being demolished but first-hand accounts of massacres was scarce. One such rumor was a grocery store owner near Jenin who spoke of seeing Israeli troops using a refrigerated truck to hold the bodies of massacred Palestinians, which he said was still parked on a nearby hill. He refused to elaborate out of fear from "collaborators." Bell reported that a National Post reporter inspected the truck and found that it contained apples and other food for the Israeli soldiers.

References

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs See Soldiers who fell in action in Operation Defensive Shield
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- "BLITZER: Mr. Erakat, you probably know that you've come under some widespread criticism here in the United States for initially charging that the Israelis were engaged in a massacre in Jenin. Perhaps 500 Palestinians murdered in that massacre, you suggested. But now all of the evidence suggests that perhaps 53 or 56 Palestinians died in that fighting in Jenin.
ERAKAT: It depends—first of all, on the number 500, I said 500 but I said at the same time I cannot confirm them because I didn't have the chance to go and pull the rubble out and to clean the rubble out, and I don't know exactly, and I said I cannot confirm it.
But what defines a massacre? Israel called, when they had this bombing in the Netanya restaurant, 26 people, they called it a massacre. So what's a massacre?
"
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Bibliography

Milton-Edwards, Beverley (2008). The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A People's War (Illustrated ed.). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-41043-4.
Rubenberg, Cheryl (2003). The Palestinians: in search of a just peace (Illustrated ed.). Lynne Rienner Publishers. ISBN 978-1-58826-225-7.

External links

Passover suicide bombing at Park Hotel in Netanya
Goldenberg, Doron: State of Siege (israelbooks.com) Archived December 22, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, Gefen Publishing House, 2003.

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Participants

Israelis

Palestinians

Principals	All-Palestine Protectorate Palestine Liberation Organization Fatah Hamas Palestinian Authority
Other groups	al-Aqsa Brigades Children DFLP Jenin Brigades Lions' Den PIJ PLF PPSF PFLP PFLP-GC PRC Sabireen Movement Sons of Zouari

Third-party groups

Individuals

Israelis

Palestinians

Timeline
- military operations

Background

1920–1948	1920 Nebi Musa riots Battle of Tel Hai 1921 Jaffa riots 1929 Palestine riots Hebron massacre 1936–1939 Arab revolt 1944–1947 Jewish insurgency 1947–1948 Civil War / Nakba

1948–1970	1948 Arab–Israeli War massacres 1948–present Fedayeen insurgency 1951–1967 Attacks against Israeli civilians 1950s–1960s Reprisal operations 1953 Qibya massacre 1956 Suez Crisis / Kafr Qasim / Khan Yunis / Rafah massacres 1967 Six-Day War 1967–1970 War of Attrition 1968 Battle of Karameh

Palestinian
insurgency

1968–1982	1970 Avivim school bus bombing 1972 Sabena Flight 571 / Munich massacre / "Bayonet" (1973 Lillehammer affair) 1974 Kiryat Shmona massacre / Ma'alot massacre 1975 Savoy Hotel attack 1976 Entebbe raid 1978 Coastal road massacre / South Lebanon conflict 1980 Misgav Am hostage crisis

1973–1987	1973 Yom Kippur War 1975 Zion Square bombing 1982 Lebanon War Siege of Beirut 1983 1983 West Bank fainting epidemic 1984 Bus 300 affair 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking / "Wooden Leg" 1987 Night of the Gliders

First Intifada

1987–1991	1988 Tunis raid 1989 Bus 405 attack 1990 Temple Mount killings 1990s Palestinian suicide attacks list 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre

Second Intifada

2000–2005	Palestinian rocket attacks Palestinian suicide attacks list Israeli assassinations 2000 October events 2001 Santorini 2002 Karine A / "Defensive Shield" / Battle of Jenin / Battle of Nablus / "Determined Path" 2003 Ain es Saheb airstrike 2004 "Rainbow" / Beit Hanoun raid / "Days of Penitence"

Palestinian dissident
campaigns

2006–present	2006 "Bringing Home the Goods" 2008 Jerusalem yeshiva attack / Jerusalem bulldozer attack 2009 Al-Aqsa clashes 2010 Palestinian militancy campaign 2015–2016 violence 2017 Temple Mount crisis 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis 2022 Al-Aqsa clashes

Gaza–Israel
conflict

2006–present

2006 Gaza beach explosion / Gaza cross-border raid / "Summer Rains" / "Autumn Clouds" / Beit Hanoun shelling
2008 Egypt–Gaza border breach / "Hot Winter"
2008–2009 Gaza War
2010 Gaza flotilla raid
2012 "Returning Echo" / "Pillar of Defense"
2014 "Protective Edge"
2015 Freedom Flotilla III
2018 Gaza border protests / November clashes
2019 May clashes / "Black Belt"
2021 "Guardian of the Walls"
2022 "Breaking Dawn"
2023 "Shield and Arrow" / Israel–Hamas war

Diplomacy/law

Timeline

1948–1991	1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight depopulated towns and villages 1949 Lausanne Conference 1967–present Israeli settlement settler violence international law
1990s	1981–1982 Fahd Plan 1991 Madrid Conference 1993–1995 Oslo Accords 1994 Paris Protocol 1994 Gaza–Jericho Agreement 1994–present US security assistance to the PA 1997 Hebron Agreement 1998 Wye River Memorandum 1999 Sharm El Sheikh Memorandum
2000s	2000 Camp David Summit / Clinton Parameters 2001 Taba Summit 2002 Quartet established 2003 Road Map 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access 2006 Valley of Peace initiative 2007 Annapolis Conference 2009 Aftonbladet Israel controversy
2010s	2010–11 Israeli–Palestinian peace talks 2011 Palestine Papers 2013–2014 Israeli–Palestinian peace talks 2023–present Gaza genocide

United Nations

Israel and the UN
Palestine and the UN
1947 UN Resolution 181
1948 UN Resolution 194
1967 UN Resolution 242
ICJ cases
- 2004 Wall construction
- 2023–present South African allegation of genocide
- 2024 Nicaragua v. Germany
- 2023–2024 Israeli occupation

Analysis
Anti-Palestinianism Comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany Criticism Criticism of Hamas Criticism of Israel Israeli criticism of the occupation Media coverage Racism in Israel Racism in Palestine Timeline of anti-Zionism There was no such thing as Palestinians

Categories:

Background

Stated goals

Operation

Jenin

Nablus

Bethlehem

Ramallah

Tulkarm

Hebron

European Union reaction

Casualties

Strategic outcome

Fact-finding and criticism

UN fact-finding mission

EU on Hamas Human Shields Usage

Human rights groups

Destruction of infrastructure and property

Destruction of Palestinian Authority property

Destruction of non-governmental property

Jenin massacre allegations

Reported first-hand allegations

See also

References

Bibliography

External links