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{{Short description|Battle of the Second Intifada}} | |||
{{Infobox Military Conflict | |||
| |
{{Distinguish|Battle of Jenin (1948)}} | ||
{{pp-extended|small=yes}} | |||
|partof=the ], ] | |||
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2013}} | |||
|image=] | |||
{{Infobox military conflict | |||
|caption=IDF ]L and D9N ]s, instrumental in changing the style of combat and the outcome of the battle. | |||
| conflict = Battle of Jenin | |||
|date=April ] | |||
| partof = ] and the ] | |||
|place=], ] | |||
| image = ג'נין חומת מגן.jpg | |||
|casus=] and earlier bombings launched from Jenin | |||
| caption = Aerial photograph of the battle area in Jenin, taken two days after the battle ended | |||
|combatant1={{flagcountry|Israel}} ] | |||
| date = April 1–11, 2002 (Israeli troop withdrawal began April 18) | |||
|combatant2=] ] (], ])<br>] ]<br>] ] | |||
| place = ], ] ] | |||
|commander1=] | |||
| result = Israeli victory<ref name=Time/><ref name=tactics>{{cite journal |title=Tactics, The Essential Debate: Combined Arms and the Close Battle in Complex Terrain |journal=Australian Army Journal |volume=1 |issue=2 |author=Lieutenant Colonel David Kilcullen |date=December 2003 |url=http://bingo.clarus.com.au/public/static/AAJ_December_03.pdf#page=64 |access-date=July 9, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140912073825/http://bingo.clarus.com.au/public/static/AAJ_December_03.pdf#page=64 |archive-date=September 12, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> | |||
|commander2=]† | |||
| combatant1 = {{flag|Israel}} | |||
|strength1=1,000 | |||
* {{flagicon|Israel|tsahal}} ] | |||
|strength2=200-250 | |||
| combatant2 = {{flagicon|Palestinian Authority}} ] | |||
|casualties1=23 soldiers killed | |||
* ] | |||
|casualties2=52 killed (38 armed men, 14 civilians according to ]; 30 militants, 22 civilians according to ])<br>685 persons arrested (mostly released) | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
{{flagicon|Hamas}} ]<br>{{flagicon|Palestinian Islamic Jihad}} ]<br />{{flagicon image|Flag of Jihad.svg}} Independent Palestinian mujahid factions | |||
| commander1 = Yehuda Yedidya<br>Eyal Shlein<br>Ofek Buchris | |||
| commander2 = Hazem Qabha {{KIA}}<br>]<br>] {{KIA}} | |||
| strength1 = 1 reserve infantry brigade<br>2 regular infantry battalions<br>Commando teams<ref name="harel257-258" /><br>12 ] armored bulldozers | |||
| strength2 = Some 200 – several hundreds<ref name="harel257-258" /><ref name=UNreport/> | |||
| casualties1 = 23 dead<br>52 wounded<ref name="harel257-258" /> | |||
| casualties2 = 52 dead (at least 27 militants and 22 civilians) per ]<ref name="hrwreport">{{Cite journal | volume = 14, No. 3 (E) | issue = May 2002 | title = Jenin: IDF Military Operations | journal = Human Rights Watch | access-date = September 21, 2008 | url = http://hrw.org/reports/2002/israel3/index.htm#TopOfPage | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080914212523/http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/israel3/index.htm| archive-date= September 14, 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref><br>53 dead (48 militants<ref>Every Palestinian male between 15 and 55 was counted as a militant. See {{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/143/2002/en/|title=Israel and the Occupied Territories Shielded from Scrutiny: IDF violations in Jenin and Nablus|publisher=] |access-date=October 22, 2015}}{{Rp|P.12}}</ref> and 5 civilians) per the ] | |||
| casualties3 = Dozens of houses destroyed according to the ]<ref name="harel257-258" /><br />according to ] at least 140 buildings completely destroyed, severe damage caused 200 additional buildings rendered uninhabitable or unsafe.<ref name="hrwreport"/> | |||
| campaignbox = {{Campaignbox Second Intifada}} | |||
}} | }} | ||
The '''Battle of Jenin''', took place in the ] ] in the ] ] on April 1–11, 2002. The Israeli military invaded the camp, and other areas under the administration of the ], during the ], as part of ]. | |||
{{Campaignbox Al aqsa}} | |||
Israeli forces employed infantry, commando forces, and assault helicopters. ] had prepared for a fight, ] locations throughout the camp, and after an Israeli column walked into an ], the army began to rely more heavily on the use of ]s. On April 11, Palestinian militants began to surrender. Israeli troops began withdrawing from the camp on April 18. | |||
The '''Battle of Jenin''', previously dubbed as the '''"Jenin Massacre"''', took place in April 2002 in ]'s ] ] as part of ]. | |||
Despite reports of a widespread massacre numbering hundreds of casualties by some Palestinian officials, subsequent investigations found no evidence to substantiate it, and official totals from Palestinian and Israeli sources confirmed between 52 and 54 ], including civilians, and 23 Israeli soldiers as having been killed in the fighting.<ref name=NewsweekJan2009>{{cite web|last=Dickey|first=Christopher|title=The Crying Game|url=http://www.newsweek.com/2009/01/14/the-crying-game.html|work=Newsweek|date=January 14, 2009 }} - "histrionic claims by Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat that 1,000 civilians had been killed. (In fact, about 50 Palestinians had fought and died in a ferocious battle that also cost the lives of 23 Israeli soldiers.)"</ref><ref name=HaaretzFeb2008>{{cite news|last=Burston|first=Bradley|title=Sderot as Stalingrad, Hamas as blind Samson|url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/sderot-as-stalingrad-hamas-as-blind-samson-1.239034|work=Haaretz}} - "On April 7, senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat suggested to CNN that some 500 Palestinians had been killed in the camp. Five days later, when the fighting stopped, PA Secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman told UPI that the number was in the thousands, hinting, along with other Palestinian figures, that Israel had snatched bodies, buried Palestinians in mass graves and under the rubble of ruined buildings, and otherwise conducted on a scale compatible with genocide."<br> - "A subsequent UN investigation determined that 52 Palestinians had been killed in the fighting, most of them armed members of Palestinian militias and militant groups. A total of 23 Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting."</ref><ref name=AFPJTimesJul2011>{{cite web|last=Krauss|first=Joseph|title=Weary West Bank fighters watch Gaza assault from afar|url=http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=13544|agency=AFP|work=The Jordan Times}} - "Fifty-four Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed in the melee."</ref> Israel did not allow emergency workers into the camp after the battle with Palestinian militants had ended, drawing condemnation from a UN envoy.<ref name="jenincamp"/> The battle led to widespread destruction of the camp, as at least 140 buildings were completely destroyed, and severe damage was caused to 200 additional buildings rendered uninhabitable or unsafe. | |||
Following large-scale attacks by Palestinian ] on ]i civilians, which culminated in the ] made on the ] Hotel in March 27, 2002<ref></ref> followed by six other suicide (bombings) attacks in a span of two weeks,<ref></ref> Israel went on what it considered a ] large-scale offensive conducted by the ] (IDF).<ref></ref> | |||
== Naming == | |||
Israel targeted Jenin (referred to as "the ]' capital" by Palestinians<ref> (according to ])]</ref>) after it charged that the city had "served as a launching site for numerous terrorist attacks against both Israeli civilians and Israeli towns and villages in the area."<ref></ref> Palestinian sources claimed that the camp and its dwellings were attacked indiscriminately by Israel with heavy military equipment, combat helicopters, rockets and missiles.<ref>, ( {{Languageicon|ar|Arabic}})])</ref> and raised allegations of massacres. | |||
According to Palestinian writer Ramzy Baroud, the event is "known by many as the Jenin massacre".<ref>{{cite book |author=Turk, M. A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jcAUf63mh5YC |title=Searching Jenin: eyewitness accounts of the Israeli invasion, 2002 |date=2003 |publisher=Cune Press |isbn=9781885942340 |series=Bridge between the cultures |pages=21}}</ref> | |||
==Background== | |||
According to a ] report, the number of Palestinians killed was at least 52.<ref></ref> The IDF and ] also estimate the number at 52, although their designation of combatants differs (IDF counts 38 "armed men", HRW counts 30 "militants").<ref></ref> Palestinian ] investigators claimed the death toll is 56, announced by Kadoura Moussa, the Fatah director for the Northern West Bank. 23 Israeli soldiers were also killed.<ref></ref> A section of the camp was also destroyed during the fighting, and explosives were detonated by both sides. | |||
The ] ] was established in 1953 within Jenin's municipal boundaries on land that the ] (UNRWA) leased from the government of ], who at the time ] until ]. Covering an area of 0.423 square kilometers, in 2002, it was home to 13,055 ] registered ].<ref name="Time">{{cite magazine |last=Rees |first=Matt |title=Inside the Battle of Jenin : Untangling Jenin's Tale |magazine=Time |access-date=November 25, 2011|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1002406,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080406171459/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1002406,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 6, 2008 |date=May 13, 2002}}</ref><ref name=UNRWA>{{cite web|title=Jenin Refugee Camp|publisher=]|url=https://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/westbank/jenin.html|access-date=August 31, 2009}}</ref> Most of the camp's residents originally hail from the ] and region of ], and many maintain close ties with their relatives inside the ].<ref name=UNRWA /> Other camp residents include Palestinians from ] and ] who moved into the area in the late 1970s, and those who came from ] after the establishment of the ] (PA) with the signing of the ] in 1993. | |||
Camp militants repelled attempts by PA seniors to exercise authority in the camp. In a February 2002 show of force, residents burned seven vehicles that were sent by the governor of Jenin and opened fire on the PA men. Ata Abu Rumeileh was designated the chief security officer of the camp by its residents. He oversaw access to the entrances to the camp, instituted roadblocks, investigated "suspicious characters" and kept unwanted strangers away.<ref name="harel254" /> | |||
The battle attracted widespread international attention due to Palestinian claims of ] and ] and also due to vastly inflated reports on body counts by Palestinian officials.<ref></ref><ref name="tele-daud"/> The IDF barred journalists from entering the camp during the fighting, yet relying on Palestinian claims, many of them reported that a ] of Palestinian civilians may have taken place during the fighting, and claims that hundreds, or even thousands, of bodies had been secretly buried in ]s by the IDF were spread.<ref></ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Evidence and reality collide in a battle of words/43-year-old Muiassar Abu Ali interview|publisher=]|date=16 April 2002||url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/04/15/1018333482108.html?oneclick=true}}</ref><ref name="tele-daud"></ref> These allegations were aired widely in the ], inciting extreme antipathy toward Israel.<ref></ref> Due to this activity, critics in ] name the events as the "Big Jenin Lie".<ref></ref><ref></ref> | |||
Known to Palestinians as "the ]' capital", the camp's militants, some 200 armed men, included members of ], ], ] (PIJ) and ].<ref name=Time /><ref name="BBCmartyrs" /><ref name="Bernanp434">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/yearbookofunited0000unit |title=Yearbook of the United Nations: 2002 |publisher=United Nations Publications |year=2004 |isbn=978-92-1-100904-0 |editor-last=Gordon |editor-first=Kathryn |volume=56 |location=New York |pages=434{{subst:en dash}}435 |issn=0082-8521 |oclc=854918701 |access-date=September 9, 2009}}</ref> By Israel's count, at least 28 ] were dispatched from the Jenin camp from 2000 to 2003 during the ].<ref name="BBCmartyrs">{{cite news|last=Lee|first=Ken|title=Jenin rises from the dirt|work=BBC|access-date=September 21, 2008|date=June 24, 2003|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3015814.stm}}</ref> One of the key planners for several of the attacks was ], who worked in a record store while also heading the local PIJ cell.<ref name="Time" /> Israeli army weekly '']'' attributes at least 31 militant attacks, totaling 124 victims, to Jenin during the same period, more than any other city in the West Bank.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=]|issue= 3003|pages=31–32|title=BeGeder Hatzlaha (Hebrew title)|author1=Kiron, Omri |author2=Al-Peleg, Daniel |date=September 4, 2009|language=he}}</ref> | |||
] ] visited Jenin during the month of the battle, and upon returning to the States testified to a congressional panel that there was no evidence of mass graves or a massacre.<ref></ref> Several months later, the UN concluded an investigation into the events and found claims of a "massacre" to be baseless. ] found no evidence for a massacre, but said "Israeli forces committed serious violations of ], some amounting ''prima facie'' to ]s." The human rights organization also criticized Palestinian militants for having endangered the lives of Palestinian civilians in part by "intermingling" with them. An investigation by ] "concludes that there was no wanton massacre in Jenin, no deliberate slaughter of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers."<ref></ref> | |||
Prior to the undertaking of the Israeli operation the ] attributed 23 suicide bombings and 6 attempted bombings against civilians in Israel to Palestinians from Jenin.<ref name="mfa2">{{cite web|title=Suicide Bombers from Jenin |publisher=Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs |access-date=October 18, 2008 |date=July 2, 2002 |url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2002/7/Suicide%20Bombers%20from%20Jenin |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705043647/http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2002/7/Suicide%20Bombers%20from%20Jenin |archive-date=July 5, 2008 }}</ref> Major attacks and suicide bombings perpetrated by Palestinian militant groups from Jenin included the ], a Palestinian suicide bombing of an ]-owned restaurant in ]<ref>{{cite news | last = Bennet | first = James | title = MIDEAST TURMOIL: THE VIOLENCE; Bomber Strikes Jews and Arabs At Rare Refuge | work=] | date = 2002-04-01 | url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F03E0DD153AF932A35757C0A9649C8B63 | access-date = 2008-07-13}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1077927.html |title=Israeli man succumbs to wounds sustained in 2002 Hamas suicide bombing - Haaretz - Israel News |access-date=2009-04-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090415134709/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1077927.html |archive-date=2009-04-15 }}</ref> which has been called a massacre<ref name=meotti>{{cite book|last= Meotti|first=Giulio |title=A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q0OpIxcBBJwC&q=Matza+restaurant+massacre|year=2003|publisher=Encounter Books|page=47|isbn=978-1594034770}}</ref> and resulted in the deaths of 16 Israeli civilians, and over 40 more civilians being injured. | |||
Many Arabs and Palestinians still use the term "Jenin Massacre" (ar:مجزرة جنين) regardless of the results of the investigations. | |||
==Prelude== | |||
{{Arab-Israeli conflict 2002}} | |||
Days prior, a ] in Netanya resulted in at least 30 casualties and 140 wounded.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |date=2022-04-16 |title=In Jenin refugee camp, anger is directed at both Israel and Palestinian Authority |url=https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/2022/04/16/in-jenin-refugee-camp-anger-is-directed-at-both-israel-and-palestinian-authority/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230211073024/https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/2022/04/16/in-jenin-refugee-camp-anger-is-directed-at-both-israel-and-palestinian-authority/ |archive-date=2023-02-11 |access-date=2023-02-11 |website=The National |language=en |agency=Associated Press}}</ref> Israel's ] began on March 29 with an incursion into Ramallah, followed by Tulkarem and ] on April 1, ] on April 2, and Jenin and Nablus on April 3.<ref name=UNreport /> By this date, six Palestinian cities and their surrounding towns, villages, and refugee camps, had been occupied by the IDF.<ref name=Bernanp434 /><ref>Taylor & Francis Group (2004) ''Europa World Year Book 2: Kazakhstan-Zimbabwe'' Published by Taylor & Francis, {{ISBN|1-85743-255-X}} p 3314</ref> | |||
Limited Israeli forces had entered the camp along a single route twice in the previous month; they encountered heavy resistance and quickly withdrew. Unlike other camps, the organizations in Jenin had a joint commander: Hazem Ahmad Rayhan Qabha, known as "Abu Jandal," an officer in the ] who had fought in ], served in the ], and who had been involved in several encounters with the IDF. He set up a war room and divided the camp into fifteen sub-sectors, deploying about twenty armed men in each.<ref name="harel254-255">Harel and Isacharoff (2004), pp. 254–255</ref> During the battle, he began calling himself "The Martyr Abu Jandal".<ref name="memri">{{cite web |volume=90 |issue=April 23, 2002 |title=The Palestinian Account of the Battle of Jenin |publisher=MEMRI |access-date=September 19, 2008 |url=http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA9002 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080909220706/http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA9002|archive-date= September 9, 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
==Precursors to the battle of Jenin== | |||
After an IDF action in Ramallah in March{{When|date=August 2010}} resulted in television broadcast footage that was considered unflattering, the IDF high command decided not to allow reporters to join the forces.<ref name="harel259" /> Like other cities targeted in Defensive Shield, Jenin was declared a "closed military zone" and placed under ] before the entrance of Israeli troops, remaining sealed off throughout the invasion.<ref name="Bernanp434" /><ref name="Selbyp1">Selby, 2003, .</ref> Water and electricity supplies to the city were also cut off and remained unavailable to residents throughout.<ref name="BBCexpert" /> | |||
The second largest refugee camp in the West Bank, and lying close to Israeli settlements and the ], the Jenin camp had come under Palestinian civil and security control in 1995. According to Israeli and Palestinian observers who gave information to the UN, 200 armed men from the ], ], ], and ] had been using the camp as a base, also known as "the ]' capital"<ref name="martcap"/>, and of the 100 ] who had launched attacks since the intifada began in October ], 23 or 28 attacks had been launched from the Jenin camp. | |||
=== Booby-trapping of homes and buildings === | |||
From the beginning of March until the first week in May 2002, there were approximately 16 bombings in ], mostly suicide attacks. More than 100 civilians were killed and scores wounded. 18 Israelis were killed in two separate Palestinian attacks on ] and ], and a ] killed 30 and injured 140 on ]. | |||
Since the previous Israeli withdrawal, Palestinian militants had prepared by ]ping both the town and camp's streets in a bid to trap Israeli soldiers.<ref name="Ahram">{{cite news |last=Cook |first=Jonathan |title=The 'engineer' |url=http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2002/582/6inv2.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907083010/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2002/582/6inv2.htm |archive-date=September 7, 2008 |access-date=September 22, 2008 |work=Al-Ahram |issue=582 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> Following his surrender to Israeli forces, Thabet Mardawi, an Islamic Jihad fighter, said that Palestinian fighters had spread "between 1000 and 2000 bombs and booby traps" throughout the camp, some big ones for tanks (weighing as much as 113 ]), most others the size of water bottles.<ref name="Time" /><ref name="CNNMardawi" /> "Omar the Engineer", a Palestinian bombmaker, said that some 50 homes were booby trapped: "We chose old and empty buildings and the houses of men who were wanted by Israel because we knew the soldiers would search for them."<ref name="Ahram" /> More powerful bombs with remote detonators were placed inside trash bins in the street and inside the cars of wanted men. Omar said that everyone in the camp, including children, knew where the explosives were located, and noted that this constituted a major weakness to their defenses, since during the Israeli incursion, the wires to more than a third of the bombs were cut by soldiers guided by Palestinian collaborators.<ref name="Ahram" /> | |||
=== Evacuation orders and start of fighting === | |||
When Jenin came under ] control in 1995 per the ], it was under an agreement to protect Israeli civilians from attacks, including ], emanating from areas under its security control. | |||
According to ], before the fighting started, the IDF used loudspeakers broadcasting in Arabic to urge the locals to evacuate the camp, and he estimates that some 11,000 left.<ref name=karsh233>Karsh (2004), p. 233</ref> Stephanie Gutmann also said that the IDF used bullhorns and announcements in Arabic to inform the residents of the invasion, and that the troops massed outside the camp for a day because of rain. She estimated that 1,200 remained in the camp, but that it was impossible to tell how many of them were fighters.<ref name="gutmann163-164">Gutmann (2005), pp. 163–164</ref> After the battle, Israeli intelligence estimated that half the population of noncombatants had left before the invasion, and 90% had done so by the third day, leaving around 1,300 people.<ref name="Time" /> Others estimated that 4,000 people had remained in the camp.<ref name=Vidalp169>Gresh and Vidal, 2004 .</ref> Some camp residents reported hearing the Israeli calls to evacuate, while others said they did not. Many thousands did leave the camp, with women and children usually permitted to move into the villages in the surrounding hills or the neighbouring city. However, the men who left were almost all temporarily detained. Instructed by Israeli soldiers to strip before they were taken away, journalists who entered Jenin following the invasion remarked that heaps of discarded clothing in the ruined streets showed where they were taken into custody.<ref name=Ferry>{{cite web|title=Jenin ground zero: Exactly what happened in the devastated Jenin refugee camp remains unknown. But for its residents, "There is no future left."|author=Ferry Biedermann|url=http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2002/04/19/earthquake/index.html|date=April 19, 2002|access-date=February 2, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307134010/http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2002/04/19/earthquake/index.html|archive-date=March 7, 2008|df=mdy-all}}</ref> | |||
As the fighting started, Ali Safouri, a commander of the Islamic Jihad's ] in the camp, said: "We have prepared unexpected surprises for the enemy. We are determined to pay him back double, and teach him a lesson he will not forget. ... We will attack him on the home front, in ], in ], and in ], everywhere. We welcome them, and we have prepared a special graveyard in the Jenin camp for them. We swore on the martyrs that we would place a curfew on the ] cities and avenge every drop of blood spilled upon our sacred land. We call on the soldiers of ] to refuse his orders, because entering the camp... the capital of the martyrs' , will, Allah willing, be the last thing they do in their lives".<ref name="memri" /> | |||
== The battle == | |||
An ] administrated refugee camp near Jenin was entered by Israeli forces in early April ], as part of Israel's Operation Defensive Shield, an operation the IDF described as intending "to dismantle the ] infrastructure operating out of the P.A.-controlled areas". Over the next few days a ] took place between the IDF and Palestinians. At that time, media reports were conflicting as to the nature of the conflict. | |||
The Israeli command sent in three thrusts consisting mainly of the reservist 5th Infantry Brigade from the town of Jenin to the north, as well as a company of the ] from the southeast and Battalion 51 of the ] from the southwest. The force of 1,000 troops also included ] and ] special forces, the ], and ] with ] for neutralizing the ] that would line the alleys of the camp according to ]. The 5th Infantry Brigade did not have any experience in ] and did not have a commander when Operation Defensive Shield started, since the last commander's service ended a few days earlier. His substitute was a reserve officer, Lieutenant Colonel Yehuda Yedidya, who got his rank after the operation began. His soldiers were not trained for ].<ref name="harel253-254">Harel and Isacharoff (2004), pp. 253–254</ref> Anticipating the heaviest resistance in ], IDF commanders sent two regular infantry brigades there, assuming they could take over the Jenin camp in 48–72 hours with just the one reservist brigade. The force's entry was delayed until April 2 due to rain and delays with transporting equipment.<ref name="Time" /> | |||
According to the IDF, Israel chose not to bomb the spots of resistance using aircraft as it entered, in order to minimize civilian losses <!--- Commented out due to link not working. If link found, please replace---will put in the UN REPORT on Jenin as it states same--->, but rather to take hold of the city using ], although there appears to have been a limited use of ]s. | |||
==Battle== | |||
According to a ] report Palestinian Islamic Jihad ] Tabaat (or Thabet) Mardawi, told CNN enthusiastically from his prison in Israel, that -- after learning the IDF was going to use troops, and not planes -- "It was like hunting ... like being given a prize... The Israelis knew that any soldier who went into the camp like that was going to get killed... I've been waiting for a moment like that for years." <p> | |||
] | |||
] | |||
Israeli forces entered Jenin on April 2. On the first day, reserve company commander Major Moshe Gerstner was killed in a PIJ sector. This caused a further delay.<ref name="harel254">Harel and Isacharoff (2004), p. 254</ref> By April 3, the city was secured, but the fighting in the camp was just beginning.<ref name="Time" /> Israeli sources say that the IDF incursion into the camp relied primarily on infantry to minimize civilian casualties, but interviews with eyewitnesses suggest that tanks and helicopters were also used in the first two days.<ref name=UNreport>{{cite web|url=https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/FD7BDE7666E04F5C85256C08004E63ED|title=Report of the Secretary-General prepared pursuant to General Assembly resolution ES-10/10 (Report on Jenin)|publisher=United Nations|access-date=September 3, 2009| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090911143157/http://www.un.org/peace/jenin/| archive-date=September 11, 2009 | url-status=live}}</ref> Captured Palestinian fighters subsequently told their interrogators that they had anticipated greater use of Israeli air power, not expecting the Israelis to risk heavier casualties in house-to-house fighting. Ata Abu Roumileh, a Fatah leader in the camp, later said that it was only when his forces saw the Israelis advancing on foot that they decided to stay and fight.<ref name="Time" /> Thabet Mardawi recalled that "I couldn't believe it when I saw the soldiers. The Israelis knew that any soldier who went into the camp like that was going to get killed.<ref name="CNNMardawi" /> | |||
] | |||
To reach the camp, a ] ] drove along a three-quarter-mile stretch of the main street to clear it of booby traps.<ref name="Time" /> An ] officer logged 124 separate explosions set off by the bulldozer.<ref name=Time /> ] | |||
On the third day, the Palestinians were still dug in, defying Israeli expectations, and by then seven Israeli soldiers had been killed.<ref name="Time" /> Mardawi later testified to having killed two of them from close range, using an M-16.<ref name="harel255" /> As the IDF advanced, the Palestinians fell back to the heavily defended camp center – the Hawashin district. ] helicopters were used to strike Palestinian positions on rooftops using wire-guided missiles, and about a dozen armored D-9 bulldozers were deployed, widening alleys, clearing paths for tanks, and detonating booby traps.<ref name="Time" /><ref name=UNreport /> Palestinians said that Israeli troops rode atop the bulldozers and fired rocket propelled grenades.<ref name="Time" /> | |||
] | |||
On April 6, ] and two other militants went into a house so as to get close enough to a tank or armored D-9 bulldozer to plant a bomb. Tawalbe and another militant were killed during the action. A British military expert working in the camp for ] reported that a D9 driver saw him, and subsequently rammed a wall down onto him and one of his fighters.<ref name="Time" /> The Islamic Jihad website announced that Tawalbe had died when he blew up in his booby-trapped home on the Israeli soldiers inside it, and that he "had thwarted all attempts by the occupation to evacuate the camp residents to make it easier for the Israelis to destroy on the heads of the fighters."<ref name="memri" /> On that same day, IDF attack helicopters reportedly increased their missile attacks, which slowed but did not cease the next day. | |||
IDF chief of staff (]) ] urged the officers to speed things up. They asked for twenty-four more hours. Mofaz told reporters that the fighting would be complete by the end of the week, April 6. In some of the sectors, the forces were advancing at a rate of fifty meters a day.<ref name="harel255">Harel and Isacharoff (2004), p. 255</ref> Israeli intelligence assumed that the vast majority of the camp's residents were still in it. Most commanders argued that this obligated a careful advance for fear of striking civilians, and warned that using excessive force would cost the lives of hundreds of Palestinians. Lieutenant Colonel Ofek Buchris, commander of the 51st Battalion, was left in a minority opinion, saying "We're being humiliated here for four days now". When Mofaz instructed the officers to be more aggressive and fire five antitank missiles at every house before entering, one of them contemplated disobedience.<ref name="harel255" /> Meanwhile, when asked how long he thought his forces could last given the superiority of the Israeli forces, Abu Jandal said: "No. That's not true. We have the weapon of surprise. We have the weapon of honor. We have the divine weapon, the weapon of Allah who stands at our side. We have weapons that are better than theirs. I am the one with the truth, and I put my faith in Allah, while they put their faith in a tank".<ref name="memri" /> | |||
Mardawi told CNN that Palestinian fighters had spread "between 1000 and 2000 bombs and ]s" throughout the camp. . ] said that "some of the bombs were huge – as much as 250 lb. of ]...compared with the usual 25 lb. a suicide bomber uses." | |||
Buchris continued to employ the tactics of softening up enemy resistance with antitank fire and extensive use of bulldozers, developing a method to expose IDF soldiers to less risk: first, a bulldozer would ram the corner of a house, opening a hole, and then an ] troop carrier would arrive to disembark troops into the house, where they would clear it of any militants found inside.<ref name="harel255" /> Buchris' battalion was advancing faster than the reserve forces, creating a bridgehead within the camp that attracted most of the Palestinian fire. During the first week of fighting, the battalion suffered five casualties. On April 8, the Golani Brigade's commander, Colonel ], arrived from Nablus. Having crawled with Buchris to the front line, he warned that the fighting style must be changed completely – call in more troops and perhaps take the command out of the reserve brigade's hand. By evening, division commander Brigadier General Eyal Shlein told his men that the mission must be accomplished by 6:00 PM on April 9.<ref name="harel256">Harel and Isacharoff (2004), p. 256</ref> Buchris himself was later badly wounded.<ref name="citation">{{cite news |title=Citation to Golani battalion commander badly wounded in Defensive Shield |work=nrg |access-date=September 22, 2008 |date=July 8, 2002 |url=http://www.nrg.co.il/online/archive/ART/316/734.html|language=he}}</ref> | |||
A total of 23 Israeli soldiers were killed in the street fighting. 13 died in a single day (]), when Palestinian fighters lured a Israeli patrol into a booby-trapped ]. | |||
At 6:00 AM on April 9, reserve battalion 7020's support company was ordered to form a new line, west of the former one. Its commander, Major Oded Golomb, set out with a force to take a position in a new house. He strayed from the original path, perhaps for tactical considerations, but failed to report to his commander. The force walked into a Palestinian ambush, finding themselves in an inner courtyard surrounded by tall houses (later nicknamed "the bathtub") and under fire from all directions, and were also attacked by a suicide bomber. Rescue forces from the company and the battalion hurried to the location and were attacked with small-arms fire and explosive charges. The exchange of fire went on for several hours.<ref name="harel256" /> | |||
According to Time, "It was real urban warfare, as a modern, well-equipped army met an armed and prepared group of guerrilla fighters intimately familiar with the local terrain. For both sides, Jenin has been added to the memories that invest the conflict in the Middle East with such bitterness." | |||
A reconnaissance aircraft documented much of the fight and the footage was transmitted live and was watched in the ] war room by the high-ranking officers. Thirteen Israeli soldiers were killed, and the Palestinians managed to snatch three of the bodies and drag them into a nearby house. A rescue force of ] naval commandos under Colonel ] was quickly assembled. Mofaz told Rothberg that negotiation over the bodies might force the IDF to halt the operation and get it in trouble similar to the ]. On the edge of the alley leading to "the bathtub", Rothberg questioned the wounded reservists. Finally, the commando force entered the house where the bodies were being held, killed the Palestinian militants in close-range combat, and extracted the bodies. In the afternoon, all Israeli casualties were evacuated from the area.<ref name="harel256-257">Harel and Isacharoff (2004), pp. 256–257</ref> A few hours after the ambush, a Golani Brigade soldier was killed at the edge of the refugee camp. With the loss of fourteen soldiers, it became the deadliest day for the IDF since the end of the ].<ref name="Time" /> | |||
=== Change in Israeli tactics === | |||
] ] used by the ] during the battle.]] | |||
After the ] ], the IDF changed tactics, presumably in order to continue the operation without risking more Israeli deaths, and began operating the heavily-]ed ] ]s. The IDF maintained that the heavy bulldozers were mainly used to clear ]s, open routes and widen alleyways for ]s and to secure locations and movement for IDF troops. | |||
During that day, the IDF censored reports on the events, leading to a wave of rumors. Partial information leaked through phone calls made by reservists and internet sites. By evening, when Chief of Central Command, Brigadier General Yitzhak Eitan, had a press conference, there were rumors of a helicopter carrying dozens of troops shot down, the death of the Ramatkal's deputy, and a heart attack suffered by the ].<ref name="harel257" /> | |||
Israel claimed that a warning was given over a loud speaker before each of the houses were destroyed; However, ]'s "7 Days" editorial released a personal interview with Moshe Nissim (nicknamed "Kurdi Bear", Hebrew: "דובי כורדי"), a problematic army ] soldier who insisted on becoming a D-9 driver, as stating that regardless of the speaker calls, he personally gave no one a chance and demolished the homes as quickly as possible while thinking about all the ] hidden in the camp and the Israeli soldiers being in a death trap situation. Nissim added his disregard for the possibility that he could be killed and that despite not witnessing any deaths, he did not care and he believes that people died inside the houses.<ref> {{languageicon|he|Hebrew}}</ref> | |||
After the ambush, all Israeli forces began to advance by Buchris' tactics, utilizing armored bulldozers and Achzarit APCs in their push. Israeli forces also relied heavily on increased missile strikes from helicopters. Several officers demanded that ] jets be sent to bomb the camp, but the IDF High Command refused.<ref name="harel257">Harel and Isacharoff (2004), p. 257</ref> The dozen bulldozers and APCs pushed deep into the heart of the camp, flattening a built-up area of 200 square yards, destroying militant strongpoints.<ref name="Time" /> | |||
It is claimed{{Who|date=July 2007}} that during this phase of the battle senior Palestinian militants such as ], alleged by Israel as involved in dozens of terror attacks inside Israel, were killed and others were arrested (such as ] and ]). | |||
As the Palestinian fighters' resistance faltered against the sheer force of the Israeli assault and their supplies of food and ammunition dwindled, Israeli troops mopped up the final resistance.<ref>, p. 203</ref><ref>, p. 185</ref> At 7:00 AM on April 11, the Palestinians began to surrender. Qabha refused to surrender and was killed, being among the last to die.<ref name="harel257" /> Most of the Palestinian fighters were either killed or captured. Some managed to escape the city and slip through the ring of Israeli troops and tanks around it. Among them was ] who moved through the houses and left.<ref name="harel258">Harel and Isacharoff (2004), p. 258</ref> Mardawi surrendered along with Ali Suleiman al-Saadi, known as "Safouri", and thirty-nine others.<ref name="Time" /> He later said that "There was nothing I could do against that bulldozer".<ref name="CNNMardawi" /> | |||
=== After the battle === | |||
The introduction of the heavily armored bulldozers, which shrugged off explosives and ] alike , and the threat of being buried alive, caused the Palestinian militants to surrender. Later, IDF forces withdrew gradually from the refugee camp under international pressure. | |||
==Battle aftermath== | |||
After the conflict Israeli reports claim that 8-9% of the houses within the refugee camp were destroyed. This was largely within an area of intense fighting of approximately 100 m by 100 m according to the IDF. . An area within the refugee camp, 100 m by 200 m according to some (up to 400 m by 500 m by other estimates<ref>{{cite news | title=Blasted to rubble by the Israelis | url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/04/16/wmid16.xml&sSheet=/portal/2002/04/16/ixport.html | date=17 April, 2002 | publisher=] | author=] | accessdate=2007-02-22}}</ref> ) was reported to have been flattened. | |||
] | |||
] | |||
The battle ended on April 11. Medical teams from Canada, France, and Italy, as well as UN and ICRC officials, with trucks carrying supplies and water waited outside the camp for clearance to enter for days, but were denied entry, with Israel citing ongoing military operations.<ref name=Winslowp68>Winslow, 2007, .</ref> The first independent observers were granted access to the camp on April 16.<ref name=Europap33>Europa, 2004, .</ref> Israeli troops began withdrawing from the camp itself on April 18.<ref name=McDonalp581>McDonald and Fischer, 2005, /</ref><ref name="massacreevidence" /> Tanks ringed the perimeter of the camp for a few more days, but by April 24, Israeli troops had withdrawn from the autonomous zone of Jenin.<ref name=Sweet>{{cite web|title=Palestinians bury their dead in Jenin: Troops pull back, tanks ring perimeter of West Bank camp|work=Chicago Sun-Times|date=April 21, 2002|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1442508.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104050635/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1442508.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 4, 2012}}</ref><ref name=Vidalp170>Gresh and Vidal, 2004, p. 170.</ref> | |||
===Removal of bodies=== | |||
Most of the demolition occurred in the Hawashin neighborhood, where most of the militants and explosives remained. Israel states that it demolished those houses because they were densely rigged with explosives.{{Fact|date=January 2007}} | |||
The IDF announced that it would not withdraw its troops from the Jenin camp until it had collected the bodies of the Palestinian dead.<ref name="courtrejects" /> The army would not confirm Palestinian reports that military trucks had removed dozens of bodies, nor would it comment on whether or not burials had taken place.<ref name=Europap571>Europa, 2004, .</ref> | |||
According to '']'', some of the bodies had already been removed from the camp by soldiers to a site near Jenin on April 11, but had not yet been buried. Palestinians allegedly buried others during the battle in a mass grave near the hospital on the outskirts of the camp.<ref name="courtrejects">{{cite news |last=Harel |first=Amos |author2=Gideon Alon|author3= Jalal Bana |title=Court rejects petitions demanding IDF not remove Jenin dead |work=Haaretz |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 14, 2002 |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/court-rejects-petitions-demanding-idf-not-remove-jenin-dead-1.47836}}</ref> On the evening of April 11, Israeli television showed footage of refrigerator trucks waiting outside the camp to transfer bodies to "terrorist cemeteries".<ref name=Reinhartp219 /> On April 12, ''Haaretz'' reported that <blockquote>"The IDF intends to bury today Palestinians killed in the West Bank camp ... The sources said two infantry companies, along with members of the military rabbinate, will enter the camp today to collect bodies. Those who can be identified as civilians will be moved to a hospital in Jenin, and then on to burial, while those identified as terrorists will be buried at a special cemetery in the ]."<ref name=Reinhartp219>Reinhart, 2006, .</ref></blockquote> | |||
<!--This represents much of the criticism that was laid on Israel after all the details of the conflict were discovered. In Israel's defense however, the Palestinians were jointly responsible for most of the accusations (such as endangering civilian life) and Israel felt there was little other choice. |Are you kidding me? This POV and OR sentence is allowed to stay? /!--> | |||
<!--Overall, Israel said that its forces had killed 47 militants and 7 civilians. Others reports initially estimated a huge variety of numbers but settled on 22 civilians amongst the 54 fatalities. Repeated from above--> <!--The walls of many buildings were covered with posters hailing the suicide bombers as ]s. Citation needed for this to stay /!--> | |||
<!--also would like a cite on Israel's numbers!!--> | |||
In October 2002, according to the Walla news agency, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas websites reported that their forces in Jenin before the Israeli entry included 250 armed militants. The official ] radio station reported that 15,000 explosive charges were at the militants' disposal, as well as a large number of handguns. The militants were well organized and had an extensive system of communications. | |||
The same day, in response to a petition presented by the ] organization, the ] ordered the IDF to stop removing the bodies of Palestinians killed in battle until after a hearing on the matter. MK ], one of many signatories to the petition before the court, said that removing the bodies from the city violated international law and was "intended to hide the truth from the public about the killing that occurred there".<ref name="courtidf">{{cite news |last=Harel |first=Amos |author2=Anat Cygielman |author3=Jalal Bana |title=Court: IDF can't move bodies; Lieberman: Barak must be ousted |work=Haaretz |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 13, 2002 |url=http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=151643 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001031904/http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=151643 |archive-date=October 1, 2007 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Following the court's decision, issued by Supreme Court President ], the IDF stopped clearing the bodies from the camp.<ref name="courtrejects" /> It was reported{{by whom|date=September 2014}} that by the afternoon of April 13, the IDF had determined the location of 23 bodies in the camp which were marked on maps.<ref name="courtrejects" /> On April 14, the Supreme Court reversed its decision, and ruled that the IDF could remove the bodies.<ref name="courtrejects" /><ref name=Europap571 /> IDF Chief of Staff ] confirmed to Israeli media on April 14 that the army intended to bury the bodies in the special cemetery.<ref name="courtrejects" /> | |||
] also wrote about the heavily wired (booby-trapped) refugee camp. It stated, for example, that on the outskirts of Jenin, an IDF ] ] detonated 124 explosive charges. ''Time'' also reported that an unnamed "senior Palestinian military officer" told them that it was probably the gunmen's own booby traps that buried some civilians and fighters alive. | |||
On April 15 humanitarian aid organizations were granted access to the camp for the first time since the invasion had begun.<ref name=Europap571 /> ] and ] staff entered the camp, accompanied by the IDF. Officials from the Red Crescent told lawyer ] that the IDF did not allow them to move around the camps freely, and that advanced decomposition, as well as the enormous destruction in the camp, made it impossible to find and retrieve bodies without the proper equipment. That same day Adalah and LAW, the ], filed a petition asking the Court to order the IDF to immediately hand over the bodies of Palestinians to the Red Cross or the Red Crescent, saying that the bodies of dead Palestinians were being left to rot in the camp.<ref name="hass">{{cite news |last=Hass |first=Amira |author2=Moshe Reinfeld |title=Court told: IDF leaving dead to rot in Jenin |work=Haaretz |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 16, 2002 |url=http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=152568 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071002044635/http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=152568 |archive-date=October 2, 2007 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> On April 19, a day after Israeli troops withdrew from the camp, journalists reported counting about 23 bodies that were lined up on the outdoor grounds of the clinic, before being quickly buried by Palestinians.<ref name=Sweet /> | |||
Al-Ahram Online has an interview with "Omar the Engineer", a Palestinian bombmaker who claims that some 50 homes were booby trapped. "We chose old and empty buildings and the houses of men who were wanted by Israel because we knew the soldiers would search for them," he said. | |||
] notes that later Israeli media reports attempted to conceal and reinterpret their intention to transfer the bodies to the special cemetery in the Jordan Valley. As an example, she cites a July 17, 2002 article by ] in ''Haaretz'' which provided a wholly different explanation for the presence of the refrigerator trucks posted outside the city on April 11. Schiff's article said: "Toward the end of the fighting, the army sent three large refrigerator trucks into the city. Reservists decided to sleep in them for their air-conditioning. Some Palestinians saw dozens of covered bodies lying in the trucks and rumors spread that the Jews had filled the trucks full of Palestinian bodies."<ref name=Reinhartp219 /> | |||
According to Israeli authorities,{{Who|date=July 2007}} numerous buildings, passages and even bodies were booby-trapped, often prompting Israelis to use armored bulldozers to level sections of the city. The Israelis also claimed to have found more than a dozen explosive-making labs, as well as the bodies of foreign citizens, most of whom were operatives of ]'s ] movement who had been brought over from Jordan. | |||
==Invasion aftermath== | |||
== Allegations of a massacre == | |||
{{POV-check}} | |||
According to the ], "International organizations, non-governmental organizations, and many foreign governments prematurely and summarily attacked Israel for committing atrocities during its military operations in the West Bank. But while a massacre of hundreds was alleged, reported and condemned, it is now essentially certain that no such massacre occurred." | |||
===Military analyses=== | |||
Later inquiries by ] groups, the UN commission and The Palestinian ] (PLO Leadership) did not find evidence of massacres by Israeli forces in Jenin. {{Fact|date=January 2007}} | |||
The Israelis said they found explosive-making labs and factories for assembling ].<ref name="saporito">{{cite magazine |issn=0040-781X |last=Saporito |first=Bill |title=Jenin: Defiant to the Death |magazine=Time |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 14, 2002 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,230385-1,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080622151535/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,230385-1,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 22, 2008}}</ref> One Israeli special forces commander who fought in the camp said that "the Palestinians were admirably well prepared. They correctly analyzed the lessons of the previous raid".<ref name="harel255" /> Mardawi told CNN from prison in Israel, that after learning the IDF was going to use troops, and not planes, "It was like hunting ... like being given a prize. ... The Israelis knew that any soldier who went into the camp like that was going to get killed. ... I've been waiting for a moment like that for years".<ref name="CNNMardawi">{{cite news|title=Palestinian fighter describes 'hard fight' in Jenin |publisher=CNN.com |access-date=September 18, 2008 |date=April 23, 2002 |url=http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/04/22/jenin.fighter/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080109035330/http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/04/22/jenin.fighter/index.html |archive-date=January 9, 2008 }}</ref> | |||
General ], Head of the IDF Operations Directorate, said "There were indications it was going to be hard, but we didn't think it was going to be so hard".<ref name="Time" /> An internal investigation published by the IDF six months after the battle implicitly cast the responsibility for the death of the thirteen soldiers on the soldiers themselves, for straying from their path unreported. It also said that the focusing on the rescue instead of subduing the enemy complicated things.<ref name="harel258" /> Buchris was given the ].<ref name="citation" /> | |||
=== Body count estimates === | |||
Initial fatalities estimates put forward by both Palestinian and Israeli officials were high, measuring in the hundreds. In examples cited in the timeline below, figures include both civilians and armed combatants unless otherwise indicated. | |||
PLO Chairman ], who left the ] in Ramallah for the first time in five months on May 14, 2002 to visit Jenin and other West Bank cities affected in Operation Defensive Shield, praised the refugees' endurance and compared the fighting to the ].<ref name="bennet">{{cite news |last=Bennet |first=James |title=Arafat Finally Leaves Ramallah, But Avoids Testy Crowd at Camp |work=The New York Times |access-date=February 22, 2009 |date=May 14, 2002 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/14/world/arafat-finally-leaves-ramallah-but-avoids-testy-crowd-at-camp.html?pagewanted=all}}</ref> Addressing a gathering of about 200 people in Jenin, he said: "People of Jenin, all the citizens of Jenin and the refugee camp, this is Jenin-grad. Your battle has paved the way to the liberation of the occupied territories".<ref name=whitaker>{{cite news |last=Whitaker |first=Brian |title=Anger as Arafat shuns camp |work=The Guardian |access-date=February 22, 2009 |date=May 14, 2002 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/Archive/Article/0,4273,4412968,00.html|location=London}}</ref> The battle became known among the Palestinians as "Jeningrad".<ref name="jeningrad">{{cite news |last=Belden |first=Paul |title=A street fight called Jeningrad |work=Asia Times |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 9, 2003 |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ED09Ak04.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030411070922/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ED09Ak04.html|url-status=unfit|archive-date=April 11, 2003}}</ref> | |||
*] | |||
:*Fighting begins | |||
The battle attracted the interest of the US military, which was trying to build a doctrine for urban warfare as the ] loomed. US military observers were sent to study the fighting. US officers dressed in IDF uniforms were reportedly present during the final stages of the battle. The ] studied the battle, and a ] delegation was sent to Israel to make changes to US Marine Corps doctrine based on the battle.<ref>''Surveillance and Control in Israel/Palestine: Population, Territory and Power'', p. 134</ref> | |||
*] | |||
:*The ] hears in a speech where ] compares "Israeli actions in the West Bank towns of Jenin and Nablus to the 1982 massacres of hundreds of Palestinans", probably referring to Israel's alleged part in the ]. | |||
===Damages=== | |||
*] | |||
The BBC reported that ten percent of the camp was "virtually rubbed out by a dozen armoured Israeli bulldozers."<ref name="BBCmartyrs" /> David Holley, a Major in the ] and a military adviser to ], reported that an area within the refugee camp of about 100 m by 200 m was flattened.<ref name="BBCexpert">{{cite news |title=Expert weighs up Jenin 'massacre' |publisher=BBC |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 29, 2002 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1957862.stm}}</ref> According to Stephen Graham, the IDF had systematically bulldozed an area measuring 160 by 250 m in the Jenin refugee camp.<ref name=Grahamp207>Graham, 2004, .</ref> The Hawashin neighbourhood was levelled.<ref name=MacDonaldp82 /> Many residents had no advance warning, and some were buried alive.<ref name=MacDonaldp82>MacDonald, 2007, .</ref> | |||
:*], a Palestinian minister for Local Government is quoted in the ] making the first allegation of a massacre | |||
:*] news hears from Abdel Rahman that "over 250 Palestinians killed" | |||
] (HRW) and ] (AI) reported that an estimated 4,000 people, more than a quarter of the population of the camp, were rendered homeless because of this destruction. HRW listed 140 buildings, most of which housed multiple families, as completely destroyed, and 200 other buildings as sustaining damage rendering them uninhabitable or unsafe for use. AI said complete destruction affected 164 houses with 374 apartment units, and that other buildings had been partially destroyed. Israel said those numbers were exaggerations.<ref name=Winslowp221>Winslow, 2007, .</ref> | |||
*] | |||
:*Israel estimates 150 dead | |||
:*] estimates 500 or more dead in the whole ] | |||
On May 31, 2002, the Israeli newspaper '']'' published an interview with ], nicknamed "Kurdi Bear", a D-9 operator who took part in the battle. Nissim said he had driven his D-9 for seventy-five hours straight, drinking whiskey to avoid fatigue, and that apart from a two-hour training course before the battle, he had no prior experience in driving a bulldozer. He said he had begged his officers to let him destroy more houses and added: <br /> ''"I didn't see, with my own eyes, people dying under the blade of the D-9 and I didn't see house falling down on live people. But if there were any, I wouldn't care at all ... <br />"But the real thing started the day 13 of our soldiers were killed up that alley in the Jenin refugee camp.<br /> "If we had moved into the building where they were ambushed, we would have buried all those Palestinians alive. <br />"I kept thinking of our soldiers. I didn't feel sorry for all those Palestinians who were left homeless. I just felt sorry for their children, who were not guilty. There was one wounded child, who was shot by Arabs. A Golani paramedic came down and changed his bandages, till he was evacuated. We took care of them, of the children. The soldiers gave them candy. But I had no mercy for the parents of these children. I remembered the picture on television, of the mother who said she will bear children so that they will explode in Tel Aviv. I asked the Palestinian women I saw there: 'Aren't you ashamed?'"'' <ref name=nissim>Winslow (2008), pp. 69–70.</ref><ref>] in Hebrew. English translation of the full interview: <br /> . By Tsadok Yeheskeli, ''Yediot Aharonot''</ref> | |||
*] | |||
:*Fighting ends | |||
:*IDF spokesman Brigadier-General Ron Kitrey reports on ] that there are apparently hundreds killed, the IDF quickly clarify he meant hundreds of casualties (killed or injured). | |||
:*An IDF source reportedly puts the number of dead at 250 | |||
:*Palestinian Information Minister, ], accuses Israel of digging mass graves for 900 Palestinians in the camp, whilst Secretary-General of the Palestinian Authority, Ahmed Abdel Rahman claimed that "thousands" had died, the most serious accusations of the episode | |||
===Casualties=== | |||
*] | |||
{{See also|Israeli casualties of war|Palestinian casualties of war}} | |||
:*After the IDF reportedly estimate 250, and 188 a final figure of 45 is given | |||
Reporting of casualty numbers during the invasion varied widely and fluctuated day to day. On April 10, the BBC reported that Israel estimated 150 Palestinians had died in Jenin, and Palestinians were saying the number was far higher.<ref name="israelipullout">{{cite news |title=Israeli pull-out on hold after bombing |publisher=BBC |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 10, 2002 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1920463.stm}}</ref> That same day, ], on a phone interview to CNN from ], estimated that there were a total of 500 Palestinians killed during ], this figure also including fatalities outside of the Jenin camp, in other areas of the West Bank.<ref name="colinpowell">{{cite news |title=Colin Powell's Challenge |work=CNN.com |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 10, 2002 |url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0204/10/i_ins.00.html}}</ref> On April 11, ] of CNN reported that Palestinians were reporting 500 dead, while international relief agencies were saying possibly as many as 200; he noted that his efforts to independently verify the claims had so far come to naught since people were being prevented from entering the camp by Israeli soldiers.<ref>{{cite news |last=Wedeman |first=Ben |title=Access to Jenin difficult |publisher=CNN |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 11, 2002 |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/04/11/wedeman.otsc/index.html}}</ref> | |||
On April 12, Brigadier-General Ron Kitri said on ] that there were apparently hundreds of Palestinians killed in Jenin. He later retracted this statement.<ref name="sadeh">{{cite news |last=Sadeh |first=Sharon |title=How Jenin battle became a 'massacre' |work=The Guardian |access-date=September 18, 2008 |date=May 16, 2002 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/may/06/mondaymediasection5 |location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081005093332/http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2002/may/06/mondaymediasection5 |archive-date=October 5, 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> Secretary-General of the Palestinian Authority, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, said that thousands of Palestinians had been killed and buried in mass graves, or lay under houses destroyed in Jenin and ].<ref>{{cite news |title=Palestinians: Hundreds in mass graves |publisher=] |access-date=July 22, 2021 |date=April 13, 2002 |url=https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2002/04/13/Palestinians-Hundreds-in-mass-graves/47761018714688/ }}</ref> On April 13, Palestinian Information Minister, ], accused Israel of killing 900 Palestinians in the camp and burying them in mass graves.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sabcnews.com/world/the_middle_east/0,2172,32177,00.html|title=Jenin refugee camp emerges defeated|website=sabcnews.com|access-date=August 22, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929124547/http://www.sabcnews.com/world/the_middle_east/0,2172,32177,00.html|archive-date=September 29, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> On April 14, ] reported that the exact number of Palestinian dead was still unknown, but that the IDF placed the toll between 100 and 200.<ref name="courtrejects" /> On April 18, Zalman Shoval, adviser to Sharon, said that only about 65 bodies had been recovered, five of them civilians.<ref name="massacreevidence">{{cite news |title=Jenin 'massacre evidence growing' |publisher=BBC |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 18, 2002 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1937048.stm}}</ref> On April 30, ], director of the ] for the northern ], said the number of dead was 56.<ref name="martin">{{cite news |last=Martin |first=Paul |title=Jenin 'massacre' reduced to death toll of 56 |work=The Washington Times |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=May 1, 2002 |url=https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-85266959 }}{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> | |||
*] | |||
:*Kadoura Mousa Kadoura, the director of Yasser Arafat's ] movement for the northern ] set the total dead at 56 | |||
Based on figures provided by the Jenin hospital and the IDF, the UN report placed the Palestinian death toll at 52 Palestinian, around half of whom were thought to be civilians.<ref name="unsays">{{cite news |title=UN says no massacre in Jenin |publisher=BBC |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=August 1, 2002 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2165272.stm}}</ref> In 2004, Haaretz journalists Amos Harel and Avi Isacharoff wrote that 23 Israeli soldiers had died and 52 had been wounded; Palestinian casualties were 53 dead, hundreds wounded and about 200 captured.<ref name="harel257-258">Harel and Isacharoff (2004), pp. 257–258</ref> Human Rights Watch reported that at least 52 Palestinians died of whom at least 22 were civilians and at least 27 were suspected militants, and that it was unable to conclusively determine the status of the remaining three.<ref name="hrwreport" /> According to retired IDF General ], the death toll was 55 Palestinians.<ref name="gazit">Herzog & Gazit (2005), p. 433</ref> Israeli officials estimated that 52 Palestinians were killed: 38 armed men and 14 civilians.<ref name="Bernanp434" /> | |||
Further investigation by the United Nations and international reporters found that 52 Palestinians were killed in the operation, 22 of whom were civilians. | |||
IDF and Israeli government sources reported that 23 Israeli soldiers were killed and 75 wounded. The UN report also noted that 23 IDF soldiers had been killed. The only exception was retired IDF General ], who initially said that 33 soldiers had died in Jenin.<ref name="gazit" /> This contradicted not only most IDF and other sources, but also IDF figures of 30 Israeli deaths total in ]. | |||
=== Post-fighting investigations === | |||
Massacres refer not only to the numbers killed, but also to the method used. | |||
===Massacre allegations=== | |||
In an article about the battle in Jenin, ] ruled out Palestinian allegations of massacre, writing that: | |||
The battle attracted widespread international attention due to allegations by Palestinians that a massacre had been committed. Reporters from various international media outlets quoted local residents who described houses being bulldozed with families still inside, helicopters firing indiscriminately into civilian areas, ambulances being prevented from reaching the wounded,<ref name="crucible">{{cite news |last=Beaumont |first=Peter |title=Ten-day ordeal in crucible of Jenin |work=The Guardian |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 14, 2002 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/14/israel |location=London}}</ref> summary executions of Palestinians,<ref name="smh">{{cite news |issn=0312-6315 |title=Evidence and Reality Collide in a Battle of Words |work=Sydney Morning Herald |access-date=September 21, 2008 |url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/04/15/1018333482108.html?oneclick=true |date=April 16, 2002}}: A camp resident who worked at the Jenin hospital said: "I saw the Israelis line up five young men with their legs spread and their hands up as they faced a wall. The soldiers then sprayed them from head to toe with gunfire."</ref> and stories of bodies being driven away in trucks or left in the sewers and bulldozed.<ref name="conflictin">{{cite news |title=Conflict in the Middle East: Fierce Fighting Continues in Jenin |publisher=CNN.com |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 12, 2002 |url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0204/12/lt.01.html}}</ref> ], a Palestinian cabinet minister, accused the Israelis of trying to cover up the killing of civilians.<ref name="jerusalemsuicide">{{cite news |title=Jerusalem suicide bomber kills at least six |work=The Guardian |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 12, 2002 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/12/israel4 |location=London}}</ref> The CNN correspondent noted that due to the IDF closure of the camp, there was "no way of confirming" the stories.<ref name="conflictin" /> During and immediately after the battle, the United Nations and several human rights NGOs also expressed concern about the possibility of a massacre. A British forensic expert who was part of an ] team granted access to Jenin on April 18 said, "the evidence before us at the moment doesn't lead us to believe that the allegations are anything other than truthful and that therefore there are large numbers of civilian dead underneath these bulldozed and bombed ruins that we see."<ref name="massacreevidence" /> | |||
:A Time investigation concludes that there was no wanton massacre in Jenin, no deliberate slaughter of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers. But the 12 days of fighting took a severe toll on the camp. | |||
Israel denied charges of a massacre, and a lone April 9 report in the Israeli press stating Foreign Minister ] privately referred to the battle as a "massacre"<ref name="perescalls">{{cite news|last=Benn |first=Aluf |author2=Amos Harel |title=Peres calls IDF operation in Jenin a 'massacre' |work=] |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 9, 2002 |url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=150051}}</ref> was immediately followed by a statement from Peres expressing concern that "Palestinian propaganda is liable to accuse Israel that a 'massacre' took place in Jenin rather than a pitched battle against heavily armed terrorists."<ref name="peresfears">{{cite news|agency=Reuters |title=Peres fears Palestinians will distort Jenin battle |work=] |access-date=September 21, 2008|date=April 10, 2002 |url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=150149}}</ref> | |||
== International statements and human rights reports == | |||
In late April and on ], ], the UN, ] and ] released reports about the Israeli military incursions into Jenin. The reports documented that approximately 30 Palestinian militants, 22 Palestinian civilians, and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting and thus felt no evidence that a massacre took place. However, HRW did say that Israel "committed serious violations of ], some amounting ] to war crimes,"<ref>http://hrw.org/reports/2002/israel3/israel0502-01.htm#P49_1774</ref> while ] similarly alleged evidence that Israel had committed war crimes. | |||
Subsequent investigations and reports by the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, ''Time'' magazine, and the BBC all concluded there was no massacre of civilians, with estimated death tolls of 46–55 people among reports by the IDF, the Jenin office of the United Nations, and the Jenin Hospital.<ref>Rees, ''Time'' magazine: "Charles Kapes, the deputy chief of the U.N. office in the camp, says 54 dead have been pulled from the wreckage and 49 Palestinians are missing, of whom 18 are residents of the camp," "the Israelis say they found 46 dead in the rubble, including a pile of five bodies that had been booby-trapped," "The Jenin Hospital, meanwhile, says 52 camp residents died, including five women and four children under the age of 15. Of the 43 dead men, eight were 55 or older and therefore probably not involved in the fighting."</ref> A team of four Palestinian-appointed investigators reporting to Fatah numbered total casualties of 56,<ref name="martin" /> as disclosed by Kadoura Mousa Kadoura, the director of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement for the northern West Bank. | |||
The ] questioned how HRW and AI could both acknowledge the lack of a supposed Israeli massacre and the endangerment of Palestinian civilians by Palestinian gunmen and still maintain its accusation of Israel, and labelled the reports prejudiced.<ref>,''Anti-Defamation League''</ref> | |||
The UN report to the Secretary General noted "Palestinians had claimed that between 400 and 500 people had been killed, fighters and civilians together. They had also claimed a number of summary executions and the transfer of corpses to an unknown place outside the city of Jenin. The number of Palestinian fatalities, on the basis of bodies recovered to date, in Jenin and the refugee camp in this military operation can be estimated at around 55."<ref name=UNreportIV>.</ref> While noting the number of civilian deaths might rise as rubble was cleared, the report continued, "nevertheless, the most recent estimates by UNRWA and ICRC show that the number of missing people is constantly declining as the IDF releases Palestinians from detention."<ref name=UNreport /> ] completed its report on Jenin in early May, stating "there was no massacre," but accusing the IDF of war crimes,<ref name="wood">{{cite news |last=Wood |first =Paul |title='No Jenin massacre' says rights group |publisher=BBC |access-date=September 21, 2008|date=May 3, 2002 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1965471.stm}}</ref> and Amnesty International's report concluded "No matter whose figures one accepts, "there was no massacre."<ref name="Time" /> Amnesty's report specifically observed that "after the IDF temporarily withdrew from Jenin refugee camp on April 17, UNRWA set up teams to use the census lists to account for all the Palestinians (some 14,000) believed to be resident of the camp on April 3, 2002. Within five weeks all but one of the residents was accounted for."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/143/2002/en/|title=Israel and the Occupied Territories Shielded from Scrutiny: IDF violations in Jenin and Nablus|publisher=] |access-date=September 11, 2009}}</ref> A BBC report later noted, "Palestinian authorities made unsubstantiated claims of a wide-scale massacre,"<ref name="BBCmartyrs" /> and a reporter for '']'' opined that what happened in Jenin was not a massacre.<ref name="beaumont">{{cite news |last=Beaumont |first=Peter |title=Not a massacre, but a brutal breach of war's rules |work=] |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 25, 2002 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/GWeekly/Story/0,,689935,00.html |location=London}}</ref> | |||
=== UN report === | |||
: Fifty-two Palestinian deaths had been confirmed by the hospital in Jenin by the end of May 2002. IDF also places the death toll at approximately 52. A senior Palestinian Authority official alleged in mid-April that some 500 were killed, a figure that has not been substantiated in the light of the evidence that has emerged. . | |||
: UN Report was strongly criticized by Human Rights Watch as "flawed" for not having any first-hand evidence and failing to address serious questions. | |||
===War crimes allegations=== | |||
=== Human Rights Watch report === | |||
At the same time, Human rights organizations and some media reports ].<ref>BBC: "Charges of war crimes committed by Israel were made."</ref> Human Rights Watch reported that of the Palestinians killed, "many of them were killed willfully or unlawfully, and in some cases constituted ]." Examples included the case of 57-year-old Kamal Zugheir who was shot and then run over by IDF tanks while in his wheelchair, and that of 37-year-old Jamal Fayid, a quadraplegic crushed to death in the rubble of his home after an IDF bulldozer advanced upon it, refusing to allow his family to intervene to remove him. It also documented the killing of a Palestinian militant who had already been wounded.<ref name="HRWbook">Human Rights Watch, 2004, p. .</ref> In November, Amnesty International reported that there was "clear evidence" that the IDF committed war crimes against Palestinian civilians, including unlawful killings and torture, in Jenin and Nablus.<ref name="rightgroup">{{cite news |title=Rights group accuses Israel of war crimes |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=November 4, 2002 |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/11/04/MN214134.DTL}}</ref> The report also accused Israel of blocking medical care, using people as human shields and bulldozing houses with residents inside, as well as beating prisoners, which resulted in one death, and preventing ambulances and aid organizations from reaching the areas of combat even after the fighting had reportedly been stopped.<ref name=greenberg>{{cite news |last=Greenberg |first=Joel |title=Amnesty Accuses Israeli Forces of War Crimes |work=The New York Times |access-date=January 20, 2009 |date=November 4, 2002 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/04/world/amnesty-accuses-israeli-forces-of-war-crimes.html?emc=rss&partner=rssnyt}}</ref> Amnesty criticized the UN report, noting that its officials did not actually visit Jenin.<ref name=macwilliam>{{cite news|last=MacWilliam |first=Ian |title=Amnesty says Jenin operation 'war crime' |publisher=BBC |access-date=January 20, 2009 |date=November 4, 2002 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2396071.stm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090105160638/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2396071.stm|archive-date=January 5, 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> The Observer reporter, Peter Beaumont, wrote that what happened in Jenin was not a massacre, but that the mass destruction of houses was a war crime.<ref name="beaumont" /> Some reports said that Israel's restriction of access to Jenin and refusal to allow the UN investigation access to the area were evidence of a coverup, a charge echoed by ], Director of the Palestinian American Research Center in Ramallah.<ref name="rabbani">{{cite journal|issue=May 2002 |last=Rabbani |first=Mouin |title=The Only Truth About Jenin Is the Israeli Cover-Up |journal=Washington Report on Middle East Affairs |access-date=September 21, 2008 |url=http://www.washington-report.org/archives/may2002/0205006.html}}</ref> | |||
{{seealso|Criticism of Human Rights Watch#Battle of Jenin}} | |||
The ] report found "no evidence to sustain claims of massacres or large-scale extrajudicial executions by the IDF". The report agreed with the total casualty figures provided by the IDF but documented a higher proportion of civilian casualties. Amnesty International concurred. The HRW report documented instances of unlawful or willful killing by the IDF, some of which could have been avoided if proper procedures were followed, as well as instances of summary executions. It also documented use of Palestinians as ']', by the IDF, and prevention of humanitarian organizations from accessing the camp despite the great need. The report concluded: <blockquote>Israeli forces committed serious violations of ], some amounting ] to war crimes. Human Rights Watch found no evidence to sustain claims of massacres or large-scale extrajudicial executions by the IDF in Jenin refugee camp. Ultimately, Human Rights Watch verified the deaths of 52 Palestinians, of whom it concluded that 27 were suspected to be armed combatants, 22 were civilians, and the status of the remaining 3 could not be determined.</blockquote> | |||
On the other side, Israeli media sources and analysts suggested media bias and propaganda efforts were the source of the allegations. Haaretz editor Hanoch Marmari stated, "some correspondents might have been obsessive in their determination to unearth a massacre in a refugee camp".<ref name="marmari">{{cite news |last=Marmari |first=Hanoch |title=Digging beneath the surface in the Middle East conflict |work=Haaretz |access-date=September 20, 2008 |url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=173899&contrassID=2&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y}}</ref> ] of ] said that the ] wanted "to turn Jenin into an '] episode'. Here the press was a willing partner they aspired to make Jenin a symbol of resistance to Palestinians".<ref name=gutmann171>Gutmann (2005), p. 171</ref> In May 2009, the IDF released a videotape showing what it called "a phony funeral that the Palestinians organized in order to multiply the number of casualties in Jenin," wherein a live person is wrapped in a green sheet and marched in a procession.<ref name="idftape">{{cite news |title=IDF: Tape shows Palestinians faked funeral |publisher=CNN.com |access-date=October 4, 2008 |date=May 3, 2002 |url=http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/05/03/jenin.tape/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080928190607/http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/05/03/jenin.tape/ |archive-date=September 28, 2008 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> LAW, the ], held a press conference on May 8, disputing the conclusions drawn by Israel. LAW stated that ] who was in Jenin on April 28, making his documentary film '']'', shot the same footage from the ground, and that it shows a group of children playing "funeral" near the cemetery. LAW added that, "The media uncritically took up the Israeli spokesmen conclusions, without investigating what the footage actually shows."<ref name=LAW>{{cite web|title=Law refutes Israeli claims of staged Jenin 'burials'|date=May 8, 2002|url=http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0205b&L=fofognet&P=57|author=LAW-The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights & the Environment|publisher=Rex Brynen on FOFOGNET|access-date=August 31, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308000617/http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0205b&L=fofognet&P=57|archive-date=March 8, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> | |||
While focusing mainly on the actions of the IDF, the report also stated that: <blockquote>Palestinian gunmen did endanger Palestinian civilians in the camp by using it as a base for planning and launching attacks, using indiscriminate tactics such as planting improvised explosive devices within the camp, and intermingling with the civilian population during armed conflict, and, in some cases, to avoid apprehension by Israeli forces.</blockquote> | |||
Harel and Issacharoff wrote that the IDF's misconduct with the media, including Kitri's statement, contributed to the allegations of massacre. Mofaz later admitted that the limitations imposed on the media were a mistake. Head of the Operations Directorate, General ], said: "Today, I would send a reporter in every APC".<ref name="harel259">Harel and Isacharoff (2004), p. 259</ref> ], ], said the decision not to allow reporters into the camp was a difficult one: "The press people said 'Listen, the journalists aren't going to like it' and the operational people said 'We don't care about the journalists right now and about our image, we don't want them inside.' It had to do with the way we were working operationally inside the camp. We had infantry coming in from 360 degrees which means that you're firing in all different directions. It's not like a journalist can be on one side or another. It's a very difficult type of combat to coordinate with the forces, let alone with somebody you don't know who's inside."<ref name=gutmann167>Gutmann (2005), p. 167</ref> | |||
The report notes that: <blockquote>The presence of armed Palestinian militants inside Jenin refugee camp, and the preparations made by those armed Palestinian militants in anticipation of the IDF incursion, does not detract from the IDF's obligation under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid harm to civilians ... Unfortunately, these obligations were not met.</blockquote> | |||
In ]'s documentary '']'', a Palestinian doctor claimed that on the second day, the city's hospital was hit by eleven tank shells. However, in both Rehov's film and ]'s 2005 film '']'', the supposed hits shown on Jenin hospital were compared to an actual building hit by ] tank shelling, suggesting that the supposed hit marks were staged.<ref>Landes, Richard, '']'' (2005)</ref> | |||
=== Amnesty International report === | |||
:Unlawful killings violate the "right to life" laid down in Article 6 of the ]. Amnesty International considers that some of these abuses of the right to life would amount to "willful killings" and "willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health" within the meaning of Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention dealing with grave breaches of the Convention; "grave breaches" of the Geneva Convention are war crimes. -. | |||
Lorenzo Cremonesi, the correspondent for the Italian newspaper ] in Jerusalem, writes in a 2009 article, that he slipped past the army barricades and entered the Jenin camp on April 13, 2002. He says the hospital was almost deserted as doctors played cards in the emergency room and that he spoke to 25 lightly wounded patients who told heartrending stories but when asked for names of the dead and urged to show where the bodies were, became evasive. "In short, it was all talk and nothing could be verified," wrote Cremonesi. "At the end of that day, I wrote that the death toll was not more than 50 and most of them were combatants". Cremonesi criticized Israel's exclusion of the media from Jenin and from ] during the ], saying, "If you hide something from me, that means first and foremost that you want to hide it, and secondly, that you have done something wrong."<ref name=cremonesi>{{cite news |last=Cremonesi |first=Lorenzo |title=Why Israel should let foreign journalists into Gaza |work=Haaretz |access-date=February 18, 2009 |date=January 12, 2009 |url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054592.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227024728/http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054592.html|archive-date=February 27, 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
=== Notes on the independent reports === | |||
Israeli critics{{Who|date=July 2007}} pointed out that the inquiries included no urban or counter-terrorist warfare specialists and therefore they believe that the investigators were unable to assess the justifiability of the IDF actions. Israel claimed that humanitarian organizations were rash to jump to conclusions about Israeli conduct without investigating thoroughly the conduct of the Palestinian guerrilla forces in the area. | |||
=== UN fact-finding mission === | |||
Moreover, Israel complained {{Fact|date=January 2007}} that although terrorists are civilians by definition, they are still ]s, which made their status different from that of the unarmed civilians. Finally, Israeli critics{{Who|date=July 2007}} pointed out the human rights groups had not investigated the incidents in which ]s of the ] and equipment of other aid agencies were allegedly being used by Palestinian militants to transport weapons and combatants, thus voiding their nonbelligerent status as defined in the Geneva Convention. | |||
On April 18, as Israeli troops began pulling out of Jenin and Nablus, UN envoy ] entered the camp. He told reporters that the devastation was, "horrific beyond belief," and relayed his view that it was "morally repugnant" that Israel had not allowed emergency workers into the camp after the battle with Palestinian gunmen had ended.<ref name="jenincamp">{{cite news |title=Jenin camp 'horrific beyond belief' |publisher=BBC |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 18, 2002 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1937387.stm}}</ref> On April 19, the ] unanimously passed ] to send a fact-finding mission to Jenin. ] ] told ], the UN Secretary-General, that Israel would welcome a UN official "to clarify the facts", saying "Israel has nothing to hide regarding the operation in Jenin. Our hands are clean".<ref name="untosend">{{cite news |title=UN to send mission to Jenin |work=Telegraph |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 20, 2002 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1391591/UN-to-send-mission-to-Jenin.html |location=London}}</ref> Abed Rabbo said the mission was, "the first step toward making ] stand trial before an international tribunal".<ref name="vulliamy">{{cite news |last=Vulliamy |first=Ed |author2=Graham Usher |title=Israel: We have nothing to hide in Jenin probe |work=The Guardian |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 21, 2002 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/21/israelandthepalestinians.unitednations |location=London}}</ref> | |||
The composition of the fact-finding team was announced on April 22. Led by former ], ], the other two members were ], former president of the ] (controversial in Israel for previous "Red Swastika" remarks),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/krauthammer051002.asp|title=Charles Krauthammer|website=www.jewishworldreview.com}}</ref> and ], the former UN high commissioner for refugees who was Japan's special envoy on ] reconstruction.<ref name="benn">{{cite news |last=Benn |first=Aluf |author2=Shlomo Shamir |title=Ben-Eliezer, Peres to Annan: Israel unhappy with Jenin delegation |work=Haaretz |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 23, 2002 |url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=154678}}</ref> | |||
=== UN fact finding mission === | |||
To settle the contradictory claims, a fact finding mission was proposed by the United Nations on ], ]. The Government of Israel considered the intitiative to set up the mission as "an anti-Israeli diplomatic offensive". | |||
Official Israeli sources expressed surprise that they were not consulted as to the composition of the team, adding that, "We expected that the operational aspects of the fact-finding mission would be carried out by military experts." On April 22, ], ] expressed his disappointment at the team's make-up, and his hope that the mission would not overstep its mandate. Peres asked Annan to deny reports that the mission would look into events outside the refugee camp, and that the findings would have legal validity. Annan said the findings would not be legally binding, and that the mission would only investigate events inside the camp, but may have to interview residents currently displaced outside.<ref name="benn" /> | |||
While formally agreeing to co-operate with the inquiry, the government of Israel set a whole list of preconditions: | |||
* That the mission should include anti-terrorism experts (this was supported by one Amnesty International advisor) | |||
* That the UN agree not to prosecute Israeli soldiers for any violations of ] which might be uncovered during by the mission | |||
and | |||
* That the mission limit its scope exclusively to events in Jenin. | |||
On April 23, ], the cabinet secretary, threatened to ban the team from entering Jenin.<ref name="goldenberg" /> In private discussions, ], Major General and Head of the IDF Operation Branch, convinced ] that the team would ask to investigate officers and soldiers, and that it might accuse Israel of war crimes, paving the way for the sending of an international force. Sharon accepted Eiland and Mofaz's position, and announced Israel's decision that the UN team was no longer acceptable on April 24, citing the lack of military experts.<ref name="goldenberg" /><ref name="harel260">Harel and Isacharoff (2004), p. 260</ref> The US rebuked Sharon's decision, and a ] official said, "We were the sponsors of that and we want it implemented as written. We support the initiative of the secretary general."<ref name="goldenberg">{{cite news |last=Goldenberg |first=Suzanne |title=Israel blocks UN mission to Jenin |work=The Guardian |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 24, 2002 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/24/israelandthepalestinians.unitednations |location=London}}</ref> | |||
These conditions were justified by the Israeli government's legal experts{{Who|date=July 2007}} on the grounds that "the conditions under which the UN proposed the mission were unfair, as the UN did not agree to give the anti-terrorism expert full membership, would not give the mission a strict mandate, nor declare the mission solely investigatory (as opposed to having a judicial purpose)". According to the Israeli legal experts, all three positions violate of the UN's own principles (as stated in the "Declaration on Fact-finding by the United Nations", A/RES/46/59 of ], ]). | |||
Annan initially refused to delay the mission. Expressing Israeli sentiment that the world ignored its victims, Ben-Eliezer said: "In the last month alone, 137 people were slaughtered by Palestinians and nearly 700 wounded. Is there any one who is investigating that?"<ref name="philps">{{cite news |last=Philps |first=Alan |title=Israel defies UN over Jenin mission |work=Telegraph |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 25, 2002 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/1392196/Israel-defies-UN-over-Jenin-mission.html |location=London}}</ref> Saeb Erekat accused Israel of "trying to sabotage the mission. I believe that they have a big thing to hide."<ref name="philps" /> On April 25, the UN agreed to postpone the arrival of the team by two days, and acceded to an Israeli request that two military officers be added to the team. Annan said talks with Israel had been, "very, very constructive and I'm sure we'll be able to sort out our differences".<ref name="undelays">{{cite news |title=U.N. delays arrival of Jenin team until Sunday |publisher=CNN.com |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 26, 2002 |url=http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/04/26/un.jenin.mission/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080211081559/http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/04/26/un.jenin.mission/index.html |archive-date=February 11, 2008 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Peres said that a delay would give the Israeli cabinet the opportunity to discuss the mission before the team arrived.<ref name="jeninmission" /> | |||
The UN refused to accept the last two conditions, whereupon the Israeli authorities announced that they would not allow the mission entry into any Israeli-controlled territory, nor cooperate with its activities in any way. According to commentaries by the diplomatic correspondents of the main Israeli papers (], ] and ]), the Sharon Government took this stance after being assured of tacit support from the Bush Administration in the US.{{Fact|date=May 2007}} | |||
Avi Pazner, an Israeli Government spokesman, said he expected the UN mission to investigate "terrorist activity" and guarantee immunity for Israeli soldiers. ] reported that Israel was also pushing for the right for both sides to review the team's report before its presentation to Annan.<ref name="jeninmission">{{cite news |title=Jenin mission delayed until Sunday |publisher=BBC |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 27, 2002 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1952508.stm}}</ref> Following a lengthy cabinet meeting on April 28, ], the ], told reporters that the UN had reneged on its agreements with Israel over the team, and so it would not be allowed to arrive. Speaking for the cabinet, he said that the composition of the team and its terms of reference made it inevitable that its report would blame Israel.<ref name="securitycouncil" /> | |||
The members of mission were for several days effectively stranded in Switzerland. As described in several commentaries on the Israeli and interantional press at the time, the The United Nations had several choices: | |||
* Accepting the Israeli conditions - Palestinian and other Arab diplomats at the UN headquarters made clear they would condemn such a move; | |||
* Proceeding with the investigation without Israeli coopertaion and without physical access to Jenin - which would have meant relying mainly on Palestinian eye-witnesses that are able to exit the ], and would have inevitably produced a manifestly one-sided report; | |||
* Continuing pressure on the Israeli Government to change its stance, a small possibility to make a difference, in light of US support for Israel's position on the mission's team. | |||
The ] convened the following day to discuss Israel's decision not to grant entry to the UN team.<ref name="securitycouncil">{{cite news |last=Benn |first=Aluf |title=Security Council meets after Israel denies entry to UN team |work=Haaretz |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=April 29, 2002 |url=http://news.haaretz.co.il/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=156992 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001161524/http://news.haaretz.co.il/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=156992 |archive-date=October 1, 2007 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Meanwhile, the ] lobby in Washington was called to pressure Annan and ].<ref name="harel260" /> On April 30, Annan urged that the UN team, which had been waiting in ] to start its mission, be disbanded, and it was on May 2.<ref name="curtius">{{cite news |last=Curtius |first=Mary |author2=William Orme |title=Annan Urges U.N. to Drop Jenin Probe |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=May 1, 2002 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-may-01-fg-un1-story.html}}</ref><ref name="rte">{{cite news |title=Annan disbands Jenin investigation team |publisher=RTÉ News |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=May 3, 2002 |url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2002/0503/mideast01.html}}</ref> On May 4, Israel was isolated in an open debate in the Security Council. The deputy US ambassador to the UN, ], said it was "regrettable" Israel had decided not to cooperate with the fact-finding team. ], the Palestinian observer to the UN, said the council failed to give Annan its full support, and had caved to "blackmailing" by the Israeli Government.<ref name="israelisolated">{{cite news |title=Israel isolated in UN debate over Jenin mission |work=ABC News |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=May 4, 2002 |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200205/s547690.htm}}</ref> The General Assembly passed a resolution condemning Israel's military action in Jenin by 74 votes to four, with 54 abstentions.<ref name="watson">{{cite news |last=Watson |first=Rob |title=UN condemns Israel over Jenin |publisher=BBC |access-date=September 21, 2008 |date=May 8, 2002 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1974389.stm }}</ref> The Bush administration supported Israel as part of a deal in which Sharon agreed to lift the siege of the ] in ].<ref name="harel260" /> | |||
After several days, UN Secertary General ] announced that due to the situation, he's disbanding the mission. | |||
===Reconstruction=== | |||
On ] ] the ] condemned both the Israeli operations and Israel's refusal of to cooperate with fact-finding team. | |||
In the aftermath of the invasion, many camp residents ended up living in temporary shelters elsewhere.<ref name=Lughodp127>Sa'di and Abu-Lughod, 2007, .</ref> The camp itself became the site of intense efforts at documenting, recording and expressing the experiences of those displaced and affected by the incursion. In discussing how to properly honor those who had fallen, one proposal suggested leaving the destruction, at least in the Hawashin neighborhood, exactly as it was, as a memorial and testament to struggle and sacrifice. Camp residents, however, insisted that the camp be rebuilt almost exactly as it had been, while also establishing a museum of memory in the Old ] building. They rejected the proposal of the Israeli housing minister to rebuild the camp at a nearby site with enlarged roads, viewing it as an attempt to erase the political reality of the camps whose existence they see as living testaments to the ].<ref name=Lughodp128>Sa'di and Abu-Lughod, 2007, pp. 128–129.</ref> | |||
=== Floor Statement: The Jenin Investigation === | |||
In a to the ], ] ] (D-DE) addressed Jenin and the UN fact finding panel: <blockquote>Had the Israelis chosen, they could have easily sat back and pummeled the camp from afar and starved the terrorists out. Instead, they...went house to house -- doing so, in part, to avoid civilian casualties, not to inflict them.<br> | |||
... here is a world of difference between the deliberate targeting of civilians and the unintentional and inevitable casualties that were bound to occur in a place like Jenin, where terrorists deliberately hid themselves among civilians.</blockquote> | |||
The senator was critical of the UN for not confronting the Palestinian government on "the use of a UN-run camp as a launching pad for terrorism," saying "it seems intent on smearing Israel for its legitimate response to that terror." | |||
Senator Biden encouraged the UN to accept what he feels were Israel's reasonable requests based legitimate concerns. He further criticized the UN team for their absence of ever investigating actual crimes committed by Arab governments, including the ] and ]. | |||
== Other controversies == | |||
*Popularly watched was the footage captured on video by an Israeli drone flying over Jenin on ]. Palestinian pallbearers carried a green blanket-wrapped "corpse" who was accidentally dropped and then stood up and placed himself back in the blanket. He was taken to a staged funeral. | |||
*During the battle, Dr. David Zangen, chief medical officer of the Israeli paratroop unit that was fighting in Jenin, reported that the IDF had worked to keep the local Palestinian hospital open. Israeli doctors had provided blood for wounded Palestinians in Jenin, who then refused to be given "Jewish blood". Col. Arik Gordin (reserves) of the IDF Office of Military Spokesmen confirmed that Israel subsequently flew in 2,000 units of blood from Jordan via helicopters. In addition, they had 40 units of blood from the Mukasad Hospital in East Jerusalem go to the hospital in Ramallah and that 70 units got to the hospital in Tul Karem. Then, the Israelis also facilitated the delivery of 1,800 units of anti-coagulants that had come from Morocco.<ref></ref><ref></ref> | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
* ''Jenin'', a song by singer/songwriter ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
{{Israeli-Palestinian conflict}} | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
{{reflist}} | {{reflist|3}} | ||
== |
==Bibliography== | ||
{{Refbegin}} | |||
=== Reports by human rights groups, the UN, the IDF and the PA === | |||
* {{Cite book|title=The Middle East and North Africa 2004|author=Europa Regional Surveys of the World 2004 Series|edition=50th, illustrated|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=978-1-85743-184-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/middleeastnortha50thunse}} | |||
* The Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies | |||
* {{Cite book|title=Cities, war, and terrorism: towards an urban geopolitics|first1=Stephen|last1=Graham|edition=22nd, illustrated|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|year=2004|isbn=978-1-4051-1575-9}} | |||
* | |||
* {{Cite book | publisher = Yedioth Aharonoth Books and Chemed Books | isbn = 965-511-767-7 | pages = 431 | last = Harel | first = Amos |author2=Avi Isacharoff | title = The Seventh War | location = Tel-Aviv | year = 2004|language=he}} | |||
* | |||
* {{Cite book | publisher = Vintage | isbn = 1-4000-7963-2 | pages = 560 | last = Herzog | first = Chaim | author2 = Shlomo Gazit | title = The Arab-Israeli Wars: War and Peace in the Middle East | year = 2005 | url = https://archive.org/details/arabisraeliwarsw0000herz | url-access = registration }} | |||
* | |||
* {{Cite book|title=The new A-Z of the Middle East|first1=Alain|last1=Gresh|first2=Dominique|last2=Vidal|edition=2nd, illustrated|publisher=I.B. Tauris|year=2004|isbn=978-1-86064-326-2|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/newazofmiddleeas0000gres}} | |||
* | |||
* {{Cite book|title=Human Rights Watch World Report, 2003|author=Human Rights Watch|edition=Revised|publisher=Human Rights Watch|year=2003|isbn=978-1-56432-285-2}} | |||
* | |||
* {{Cite book | publisher = Grove Press | isbn = 0-8021-4158-7 | last = Karsh | first = Efraim | author-link=Efraim Karsh | title = Arafat's War: The Man and His Battle for Israeli Conquest | url = https://archive.org/details/arafatswarmanan00kars | url-access = registration | date = October 26, 2004}} | |||
* (IDF spokesman's official response to the report) | |||
* {{Cite book | publisher = Encounter Books | isbn = 1-893554-94-5 | last = Gutmann | first = Stephanie | title = The Other War: Israelis, Palestinians and the Struggle for Media Supremacy | year = 2005 | url = https://archive.org/details/otherwarisraelis00step }} | |||
* | |||
* {{Cite book|title=The global human right to health: dream or possibility?|first1=Théodore Harney|last1=MacDonald|publisher=Radcliffe Publishing|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84619-201-2}} | |||
* | |||
* {{Cite book|title=Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law, Volume 5|first1=Avril|last1=McDonald|first2=H.|last2=Fischer|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-90-6704-189-8}} | |||
* , at Israel's Foreign Ministry website | |||
* {{Cite book|title=The road map to nowhere: Israel/Palestine since 2003|first1=Tanya|last1=Reinhart|author-link1=Tanya Reinhart|edition=Illustrated|publisher=Verso|year=2006|isbn=978-1-84467-076-5}} | |||
* {{Cite book|title=Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the claims of memory|first1=Ahmad H.|last1=Sa'di|first2=Lila|last2=Abu-Lughod|author-link2=Lila Abu-Lughod|edition=Illustrated|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-231-13579-5}} | |||
* {{Cite book|title=Water, power and politics in the Middle East: the other Israeli-Palestinian conflict|first1=Jan|last1=Selby|edition=Illustrated|publisher=I.B. Tauris|year=2003|isbn=978-1-86064-934-9}} | |||
* {{Cite book | publisher = Beacon Press | isbn = 978-0-8070-6907-3 | last = Winslow | first = Philip C. | title = ] | date = September 1, 2008}} | |||
{{Refend}} | |||
===Further reading=== | |||
=== Press reports, opinions and articles about Jenin battle === | |||
* {{Cite book | last = Goldberg | first = Brett | title = A Psalm in Jenin | publisher = Modan Publishing House | year = 2003 | location = Israel | pages = 304 | isbn = 965-7141-03-6}} | |||
Whilst considering these press and news reports, it is important to consider the date. At first, many international newspapers reported the possibility of a massacre, whereas 3-4 weeks on, they often describe the massacre as particularly unlikely. | |||
* {{Cite book | editor-last = Baroud | editor-first = Ramzy Mohammed | title = Searching Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts of the Israeli Invasion 2002 | publisher = Cune Press | year = 2003 | location = Seattle, Washington | pages = 256 | isbn = 1-885942-34-6}} | |||
* , ] report, June 2002. | |||
* , analysis in Azure magazine. | |||
* '']'' | |||
* Honest Reporting | |||
* | |||
* | |||
* Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting | |||
* | |||
* Jenin War Diary of a Hasidic Soldier - ], ] - Sergeant Major Rami Meir | |||
** , . | |||
** Reprint: , . | |||
* , ] interview with ] militant Tabaat Mardawi (], ]) | |||
* | |||
* | |||
* | |||
* | |||
==External links== | |||
'''Articles from ]''' | |||
* {{Cite conference|publisher=United Nations |title=Report of the Secretary-General on Jenin |access-date=September 22, 2008 |date=June 7, 2002 |url=https://www.un.org/peace/jenin/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080911045522/http://www.un.org/peace/jenin/index.html |archive-date=September 11, 2008 |url-status=dead |df=mdy }} | |||
* | |||
* {{Cite conference | publisher = Amnesty International | title = Israel and the Occupied Territories: Shielded from scrutiny: IDF violations in Jenin and Nablus | access-date = September 21, 2008 | date = November 4, 2002 | url = https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE15/143/2002 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080929213014/http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE15/143/2002 | archive-date = September 29, 2008 | url-status = dead | df = mdy-all }} | |||
* | |||
* {{Cite journal | volume = 14, No. 3 (E) | issue = May 2002 | title = Jenin: IDF Military Operations | journal = Human Rights Watch | access-date = September 21, 2008 | url = http://hrw.org/reports/2002/israel3/index.htm#TopOfPage | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080914212523/http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/israel3/index.htm| archive-date= September 14, 2008 | url-status= live}} | |||
* | |||
* Matt Rees, , ], May 13, 2002 | |||
'''Articles from ] and ]''' | |||
* , Peter Beaumont (], ]) | |||
* , Suzanne Goldenberg (], ]) | |||
* , Ewen MacAskill (], ]) | |||
* , Bryan Whitaker (], ]) | |||
* , Chris McGreal in Jerusalem and Brian Whitaker (], ]) | |||
* , Peter Beaumont in Jenin (], ]) | |||
'''Articles from the ]''' | |||
* (] ]) | |||
* (] ]) | |||
* (] ]) | |||
* (] ]) | |||
* (] ]) | |||
* (] ]) | |||
'''Articles from ]''' | |||
* (] ]) | |||
* (] ]) | |||
* (] ]) | |||
* (] ]) | |||
* | |||
* | |||
* (] ]) | |||
* | |||
=== Published personal accounts === | |||
The books below present contrasting Israeli and Arab views of the battle. | |||
Each is a collection of personal anecdotes, based on the authors' interviews with eyewitnesses / participants: | |||
'''Israeli Accounts''' | |||
* {{cite book | |||
| last = Goldberg | |||
| first = Brett | |||
| authorlink = Brett Goldberg | |||
| title = A Psalm in Jenin | |||
| publisher = Modan Publishing House | |||
| date = 2003 | |||
| location = Israel | |||
| pages = 304 | |||
| isbn = 965-7141-03-6 }} is a sketch of the experiences of several Israeli soldiers who participated in the battle (either as combatants or auxiliaries such as field medics), based on their accounts and/or accounts of families and friends, in the case of soldiers who fell in the battle. | |||
'''Arab Accounts''' | |||
* {{cite book | |||
| last = Baroud | |||
| first = Ramzy Mohammed, editor | |||
| authorlink = Ramzy Baroud | |||
| title = Searching Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts of the Israeli Invasion 2002 | |||
| publisher = Cune Press | |||
| date = January, 2003 | |||
| location = Seattle, Washington | |||
| pages = 256 | |||
| url = http://www.cunepress.net/Book/?GCOI=88594100573750 | |||
| isbn = 1885942346 }} is a series of interviews with Arab children and adults who either hid during the battle, or who worked during the battle (such as a Red Crescent ambulance driver,) and describe what they saw and felt. None of the interviewees admit to having fought in the battle. | |||
=== Related issues to Jenin battle === | |||
* Jenin - center of ] | |||
** | |||
** | |||
** | |||
* Photos of fake funeral in Jenin | |||
** (original link, not working) | |||
** (reprint + video) | |||
* | |||
* | |||
* Muhammed Bakri's film ''Jenin Jenin'': | |||
** | |||
** | |||
** | |||
** , a combat paramedic and doctor who fought in Jenin slams Bakri movies for telling lies (] - repprint, ], ]) | |||
** | |||
* Film by Pierre Rehov, intended in part to expose alleged "propaganda and misinformation spread by Bakri". | |||
* | |||
{{Israeli-Palestinian Conflict}} | {{Israeli-Palestinian Conflict}} | ||
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jenin}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Jenin, Battle of (2002)}} | ||
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Latest revision as of 14:41, 14 October 2024
Battle of the Second Intifada Not to be confused with Battle of Jenin (1948).
Battle of Jenin | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of Operation Defensive Shield and the Second Intifada | |||||||
Aerial photograph of the battle area in Jenin, taken two days after the battle ended | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Hamas Palestinian Islamic Jihad Independent Palestinian mujahid factions | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Yehuda Yedidya Eyal Shlein Ofek Buchris |
Hazem Qabha † Zakaria Zubeidi Mahmoud Tawalbe † | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
1 reserve infantry brigade 2 regular infantry battalions Commando teams 12 D9 armored bulldozers | Some 200 – several hundreds | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
23 dead 52 wounded |
52 dead (at least 27 militants and 22 civilians) per HRW 53 dead (48 militants and 5 civilians) per the IDF | ||||||
Dozens of houses destroyed according to the IDF according to HRW at least 140 buildings completely destroyed, severe damage caused 200 additional buildings rendered uninhabitable or unsafe. |
Second Intifada | |
---|---|
Lists |
The Battle of Jenin, took place in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on April 1–11, 2002. The Israeli military invaded the camp, and other areas under the administration of the Palestinian Authority, during the Second Intifada, as part of Operation Defensive Shield.
Israeli forces employed infantry, commando forces, and assault helicopters. Palestinian militants had prepared for a fight, booby trapping locations throughout the camp, and after an Israeli column walked into an ambush, the army began to rely more heavily on the use of armored bulldozers. On April 11, Palestinian militants began to surrender. Israeli troops began withdrawing from the camp on April 18.
Despite reports of a widespread massacre numbering hundreds of casualties by some Palestinian officials, subsequent investigations found no evidence to substantiate it, and official totals from Palestinian and Israeli sources confirmed between 52 and 54 Palestinians, including civilians, and 23 Israeli soldiers as having been killed in the fighting. Israel did not allow emergency workers into the camp after the battle with Palestinian militants had ended, drawing condemnation from a UN envoy. The battle led to widespread destruction of the camp, as at least 140 buildings were completely destroyed, and severe damage was caused to 200 additional buildings rendered uninhabitable or unsafe.
Naming
According to Palestinian writer Ramzy Baroud, the event is "known by many as the Jenin massacre".
Background
The Jenin refugee camp was established in 1953 within Jenin's municipal boundaries on land that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) leased from the government of Jordan, who at the time ruled the West Bank until 1967. Covering an area of 0.423 square kilometers, in 2002, it was home to 13,055 UNRWA registered Palestinian refugees. Most of the camp's residents originally hail from the Carmel mountains and region of Haifa, and many maintain close ties with their relatives inside the Green Line. Other camp residents include Palestinians from Gaza and Tulkarm who moved into the area in the late 1970s, and those who came from Jordan after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA) with the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.
Camp militants repelled attempts by PA seniors to exercise authority in the camp. In a February 2002 show of force, residents burned seven vehicles that were sent by the governor of Jenin and opened fire on the PA men. Ata Abu Rumeileh was designated the chief security officer of the camp by its residents. He oversaw access to the entrances to the camp, instituted roadblocks, investigated "suspicious characters" and kept unwanted strangers away.
Known to Palestinians as "the martyrs' capital", the camp's militants, some 200 armed men, included members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Tanzim, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hamas. By Israel's count, at least 28 suicide bombers were dispatched from the Jenin camp from 2000 to 2003 during the Second Intifada. One of the key planners for several of the attacks was Mahmoud Tawalbe, who worked in a record store while also heading the local PIJ cell. Israeli army weekly Bamahane attributes at least 31 militant attacks, totaling 124 victims, to Jenin during the same period, more than any other city in the West Bank.
Prior to the undertaking of the Israeli operation the IDF Spokesman attributed 23 suicide bombings and 6 attempted bombings against civilians in Israel to Palestinians from Jenin. Major attacks and suicide bombings perpetrated by Palestinian militant groups from Jenin included the Matza restaurant suicide bombing, a Palestinian suicide bombing of an Israeli Arab-owned restaurant in Haifa, Israel which has been called a massacre and resulted in the deaths of 16 Israeli civilians, and over 40 more civilians being injured.
Prelude
Days prior, a suicide bombing attack on a Passover celebration in Netanya resulted in at least 30 casualties and 140 wounded. Israel's Operation Defensive Shield began on March 29 with an incursion into Ramallah, followed by Tulkarem and Qalqilya on April 1, Bethlehem on April 2, and Jenin and Nablus on April 3. By this date, six Palestinian cities and their surrounding towns, villages, and refugee camps, had been occupied by the IDF.
Limited Israeli forces had entered the camp along a single route twice in the previous month; they encountered heavy resistance and quickly withdrew. Unlike other camps, the organizations in Jenin had a joint commander: Hazem Ahmad Rayhan Qabha, known as "Abu Jandal," an officer in the Palestinian National and Islamic Forces who had fought in Lebanon, served in the Iraqi Army, and who had been involved in several encounters with the IDF. He set up a war room and divided the camp into fifteen sub-sectors, deploying about twenty armed men in each. During the battle, he began calling himself "The Martyr Abu Jandal".
After an IDF action in Ramallah in March resulted in television broadcast footage that was considered unflattering, the IDF high command decided not to allow reporters to join the forces. Like other cities targeted in Defensive Shield, Jenin was declared a "closed military zone" and placed under curfew before the entrance of Israeli troops, remaining sealed off throughout the invasion. Water and electricity supplies to the city were also cut off and remained unavailable to residents throughout.
Booby-trapping of homes and buildings
Since the previous Israeli withdrawal, Palestinian militants had prepared by boobytrapping both the town and camp's streets in a bid to trap Israeli soldiers. Following his surrender to Israeli forces, Thabet Mardawi, an Islamic Jihad fighter, said that Palestinian fighters had spread "between 1000 and 2000 bombs and booby traps" throughout the camp, some big ones for tanks (weighing as much as 113 kilograms), most others the size of water bottles. "Omar the Engineer", a Palestinian bombmaker, said that some 50 homes were booby trapped: "We chose old and empty buildings and the houses of men who were wanted by Israel because we knew the soldiers would search for them." More powerful bombs with remote detonators were placed inside trash bins in the street and inside the cars of wanted men. Omar said that everyone in the camp, including children, knew where the explosives were located, and noted that this constituted a major weakness to their defenses, since during the Israeli incursion, the wires to more than a third of the bombs were cut by soldiers guided by Palestinian collaborators.
Evacuation orders and start of fighting
According to Efraim Karsh, before the fighting started, the IDF used loudspeakers broadcasting in Arabic to urge the locals to evacuate the camp, and he estimates that some 11,000 left. Stephanie Gutmann also said that the IDF used bullhorns and announcements in Arabic to inform the residents of the invasion, and that the troops massed outside the camp for a day because of rain. She estimated that 1,200 remained in the camp, but that it was impossible to tell how many of them were fighters. After the battle, Israeli intelligence estimated that half the population of noncombatants had left before the invasion, and 90% had done so by the third day, leaving around 1,300 people. Others estimated that 4,000 people had remained in the camp. Some camp residents reported hearing the Israeli calls to evacuate, while others said they did not. Many thousands did leave the camp, with women and children usually permitted to move into the villages in the surrounding hills or the neighbouring city. However, the men who left were almost all temporarily detained. Instructed by Israeli soldiers to strip before they were taken away, journalists who entered Jenin following the invasion remarked that heaps of discarded clothing in the ruined streets showed where they were taken into custody.
As the fighting started, Ali Safouri, a commander of the Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds Brigades in the camp, said: "We have prepared unexpected surprises for the enemy. We are determined to pay him back double, and teach him a lesson he will not forget. ... We will attack him on the home front, in Jerusalem, in Haifa, and in Jaffa, everywhere. We welcome them, and we have prepared a special graveyard in the Jenin camp for them. We swore on the martyrs that we would place a curfew on the Zionist cities and avenge every drop of blood spilled upon our sacred land. We call on the soldiers of Sharon to refuse his orders, because entering the camp... the capital of the martyrs' , will, Allah willing, be the last thing they do in their lives".
The Israeli command sent in three thrusts consisting mainly of the reservist 5th Infantry Brigade from the town of Jenin to the north, as well as a company of the Nahal Brigade from the southeast and Battalion 51 of the Golani Brigade from the southwest. The force of 1,000 troops also included Shayetet 13 and Duvdevan Unit special forces, the Armored Corps, and Combat Engineering Corps with armored bulldozer for neutralizing the roadside bombs that would line the alleys of the camp according to Military Intelligence. The 5th Infantry Brigade did not have any experience in close quarters combat and did not have a commander when Operation Defensive Shield started, since the last commander's service ended a few days earlier. His substitute was a reserve officer, Lieutenant Colonel Yehuda Yedidya, who got his rank after the operation began. His soldiers were not trained for urban fighting. Anticipating the heaviest resistance in Nablus, IDF commanders sent two regular infantry brigades there, assuming they could take over the Jenin camp in 48–72 hours with just the one reservist brigade. The force's entry was delayed until April 2 due to rain and delays with transporting equipment.
Battle
Israeli forces entered Jenin on April 2. On the first day, reserve company commander Major Moshe Gerstner was killed in a PIJ sector. This caused a further delay. By April 3, the city was secured, but the fighting in the camp was just beginning. Israeli sources say that the IDF incursion into the camp relied primarily on infantry to minimize civilian casualties, but interviews with eyewitnesses suggest that tanks and helicopters were also used in the first two days. Captured Palestinian fighters subsequently told their interrogators that they had anticipated greater use of Israeli air power, not expecting the Israelis to risk heavier casualties in house-to-house fighting. Ata Abu Roumileh, a Fatah leader in the camp, later said that it was only when his forces saw the Israelis advancing on foot that they decided to stay and fight. Thabet Mardawi recalled that "I couldn't believe it when I saw the soldiers. The Israelis knew that any soldier who went into the camp like that was going to get killed.
To reach the camp, a Caterpillar D-9 armored bulldozer drove along a three-quarter-mile stretch of the main street to clear it of booby traps. An Israeli Engineering Corps officer logged 124 separate explosions set off by the bulldozer.
On the third day, the Palestinians were still dug in, defying Israeli expectations, and by then seven Israeli soldiers had been killed. Mardawi later testified to having killed two of them from close range, using an M-16. As the IDF advanced, the Palestinians fell back to the heavily defended camp center – the Hawashin district. AH-1 Cobra helicopters were used to strike Palestinian positions on rooftops using wire-guided missiles, and about a dozen armored D-9 bulldozers were deployed, widening alleys, clearing paths for tanks, and detonating booby traps. Palestinians said that Israeli troops rode atop the bulldozers and fired rocket propelled grenades.
On April 6, Mahmoud Tawalbe and two other militants went into a house so as to get close enough to a tank or armored D-9 bulldozer to plant a bomb. Tawalbe and another militant were killed during the action. A British military expert working in the camp for Amnesty International reported that a D9 driver saw him, and subsequently rammed a wall down onto him and one of his fighters. The Islamic Jihad website announced that Tawalbe had died when he blew up in his booby-trapped home on the Israeli soldiers inside it, and that he "had thwarted all attempts by the occupation to evacuate the camp residents to make it easier for the Israelis to destroy on the heads of the fighters." On that same day, IDF attack helicopters reportedly increased their missile attacks, which slowed but did not cease the next day.
IDF chief of staff (Ramatkal) Shaul Mofaz urged the officers to speed things up. They asked for twenty-four more hours. Mofaz told reporters that the fighting would be complete by the end of the week, April 6. In some of the sectors, the forces were advancing at a rate of fifty meters a day. Israeli intelligence assumed that the vast majority of the camp's residents were still in it. Most commanders argued that this obligated a careful advance for fear of striking civilians, and warned that using excessive force would cost the lives of hundreds of Palestinians. Lieutenant Colonel Ofek Buchris, commander of the 51st Battalion, was left in a minority opinion, saying "We're being humiliated here for four days now". When Mofaz instructed the officers to be more aggressive and fire five antitank missiles at every house before entering, one of them contemplated disobedience. Meanwhile, when asked how long he thought his forces could last given the superiority of the Israeli forces, Abu Jandal said: "No. That's not true. We have the weapon of surprise. We have the weapon of honor. We have the divine weapon, the weapon of Allah who stands at our side. We have weapons that are better than theirs. I am the one with the truth, and I put my faith in Allah, while they put their faith in a tank".
Buchris continued to employ the tactics of softening up enemy resistance with antitank fire and extensive use of bulldozers, developing a method to expose IDF soldiers to less risk: first, a bulldozer would ram the corner of a house, opening a hole, and then an IDF Achzarit troop carrier would arrive to disembark troops into the house, where they would clear it of any militants found inside. Buchris' battalion was advancing faster than the reserve forces, creating a bridgehead within the camp that attracted most of the Palestinian fire. During the first week of fighting, the battalion suffered five casualties. On April 8, the Golani Brigade's commander, Colonel Moshe Tamir, arrived from Nablus. Having crawled with Buchris to the front line, he warned that the fighting style must be changed completely – call in more troops and perhaps take the command out of the reserve brigade's hand. By evening, division commander Brigadier General Eyal Shlein told his men that the mission must be accomplished by 6:00 PM on April 9. Buchris himself was later badly wounded.
At 6:00 AM on April 9, reserve battalion 7020's support company was ordered to form a new line, west of the former one. Its commander, Major Oded Golomb, set out with a force to take a position in a new house. He strayed from the original path, perhaps for tactical considerations, but failed to report to his commander. The force walked into a Palestinian ambush, finding themselves in an inner courtyard surrounded by tall houses (later nicknamed "the bathtub") and under fire from all directions, and were also attacked by a suicide bomber. Rescue forces from the company and the battalion hurried to the location and were attacked with small-arms fire and explosive charges. The exchange of fire went on for several hours.
A reconnaissance aircraft documented much of the fight and the footage was transmitted live and was watched in the Israeli Central Command war room by the high-ranking officers. Thirteen Israeli soldiers were killed, and the Palestinians managed to snatch three of the bodies and drag them into a nearby house. A rescue force of Shayetet 13 naval commandos under Colonel Ram Rothberg was quickly assembled. Mofaz told Rothberg that negotiation over the bodies might force the IDF to halt the operation and get it in trouble similar to the 2000 Hezbollah cross-border raid. On the edge of the alley leading to "the bathtub", Rothberg questioned the wounded reservists. Finally, the commando force entered the house where the bodies were being held, killed the Palestinian militants in close-range combat, and extracted the bodies. In the afternoon, all Israeli casualties were evacuated from the area. A few hours after the ambush, a Golani Brigade soldier was killed at the edge of the refugee camp. With the loss of fourteen soldiers, it became the deadliest day for the IDF since the end of the 1982 Lebanon War.
During that day, the IDF censored reports on the events, leading to a wave of rumors. Partial information leaked through phone calls made by reservists and internet sites. By evening, when Chief of Central Command, Brigadier General Yitzhak Eitan, had a press conference, there were rumors of a helicopter carrying dozens of troops shot down, the death of the Ramatkal's deputy, and a heart attack suffered by the Minister of Defense.
After the ambush, all Israeli forces began to advance by Buchris' tactics, utilizing armored bulldozers and Achzarit APCs in their push. Israeli forces also relied heavily on increased missile strikes from helicopters. Several officers demanded that F-16 jets be sent to bomb the camp, but the IDF High Command refused. The dozen bulldozers and APCs pushed deep into the heart of the camp, flattening a built-up area of 200 square yards, destroying militant strongpoints.
As the Palestinian fighters' resistance faltered against the sheer force of the Israeli assault and their supplies of food and ammunition dwindled, Israeli troops mopped up the final resistance. At 7:00 AM on April 11, the Palestinians began to surrender. Qabha refused to surrender and was killed, being among the last to die. Most of the Palestinian fighters were either killed or captured. Some managed to escape the city and slip through the ring of Israeli troops and tanks around it. Among them was Zakaria Zubeidi who moved through the houses and left. Mardawi surrendered along with Ali Suleiman al-Saadi, known as "Safouri", and thirty-nine others. He later said that "There was nothing I could do against that bulldozer".
Battle aftermath
The battle ended on April 11. Medical teams from Canada, France, and Italy, as well as UN and ICRC officials, with trucks carrying supplies and water waited outside the camp for clearance to enter for days, but were denied entry, with Israel citing ongoing military operations. The first independent observers were granted access to the camp on April 16. Israeli troops began withdrawing from the camp itself on April 18. Tanks ringed the perimeter of the camp for a few more days, but by April 24, Israeli troops had withdrawn from the autonomous zone of Jenin.
Removal of bodies
The IDF announced that it would not withdraw its troops from the Jenin camp until it had collected the bodies of the Palestinian dead. The army would not confirm Palestinian reports that military trucks had removed dozens of bodies, nor would it comment on whether or not burials had taken place.
According to Haaretz, some of the bodies had already been removed from the camp by soldiers to a site near Jenin on April 11, but had not yet been buried. Palestinians allegedly buried others during the battle in a mass grave near the hospital on the outskirts of the camp. On the evening of April 11, Israeli television showed footage of refrigerator trucks waiting outside the camp to transfer bodies to "terrorist cemeteries". On April 12, Haaretz reported that
"The IDF intends to bury today Palestinians killed in the West Bank camp ... The sources said two infantry companies, along with members of the military rabbinate, will enter the camp today to collect bodies. Those who can be identified as civilians will be moved to a hospital in Jenin, and then on to burial, while those identified as terrorists will be buried at a special cemetery in the Jordan Valley."
The same day, in response to a petition presented by the Adalah organization, the Israeli High Court ordered the IDF to stop removing the bodies of Palestinians killed in battle until after a hearing on the matter. MK Ahmed Tibi, one of many signatories to the petition before the court, said that removing the bodies from the city violated international law and was "intended to hide the truth from the public about the killing that occurred there". Following the court's decision, issued by Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, the IDF stopped clearing the bodies from the camp. It was reported that by the afternoon of April 13, the IDF had determined the location of 23 bodies in the camp which were marked on maps. On April 14, the Supreme Court reversed its decision, and ruled that the IDF could remove the bodies. IDF Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz confirmed to Israeli media on April 14 that the army intended to bury the bodies in the special cemetery.
On April 15 humanitarian aid organizations were granted access to the camp for the first time since the invasion had begun. Palestinian Red Crescent Society and International Committee of the Red Cross staff entered the camp, accompanied by the IDF. Officials from the Red Crescent told lawyer Hassan Jabareen that the IDF did not allow them to move around the camps freely, and that advanced decomposition, as well as the enormous destruction in the camp, made it impossible to find and retrieve bodies without the proper equipment. That same day Adalah and LAW, the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment, filed a petition asking the Court to order the IDF to immediately hand over the bodies of Palestinians to the Red Cross or the Red Crescent, saying that the bodies of dead Palestinians were being left to rot in the camp. On April 19, a day after Israeli troops withdrew from the camp, journalists reported counting about 23 bodies that were lined up on the outdoor grounds of the clinic, before being quickly buried by Palestinians.
Tanya Reinhart notes that later Israeli media reports attempted to conceal and reinterpret their intention to transfer the bodies to the special cemetery in the Jordan Valley. As an example, she cites a July 17, 2002 article by Ze'ev Schiff in Haaretz which provided a wholly different explanation for the presence of the refrigerator trucks posted outside the city on April 11. Schiff's article said: "Toward the end of the fighting, the army sent three large refrigerator trucks into the city. Reservists decided to sleep in them for their air-conditioning. Some Palestinians saw dozens of covered bodies lying in the trucks and rumors spread that the Jews had filled the trucks full of Palestinian bodies."
Invasion aftermath
Military analyses
The Israelis said they found explosive-making labs and factories for assembling Qassam II rockets. One Israeli special forces commander who fought in the camp said that "the Palestinians were admirably well prepared. They correctly analyzed the lessons of the previous raid". Mardawi told CNN from prison in Israel, that after learning the IDF was going to use troops, and not planes, "It was like hunting ... like being given a prize. ... The Israelis knew that any soldier who went into the camp like that was going to get killed. ... I've been waiting for a moment like that for years".
General Dan Harel, Head of the IDF Operations Directorate, said "There were indications it was going to be hard, but we didn't think it was going to be so hard". An internal investigation published by the IDF six months after the battle implicitly cast the responsibility for the death of the thirteen soldiers on the soldiers themselves, for straying from their path unreported. It also said that the focusing on the rescue instead of subduing the enemy complicated things. Buchris was given the Chief of Staff citation.
PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, who left the compound in Ramallah for the first time in five months on May 14, 2002 to visit Jenin and other West Bank cities affected in Operation Defensive Shield, praised the refugees' endurance and compared the fighting to the Battle of Stalingrad. Addressing a gathering of about 200 people in Jenin, he said: "People of Jenin, all the citizens of Jenin and the refugee camp, this is Jenin-grad. Your battle has paved the way to the liberation of the occupied territories". The battle became known among the Palestinians as "Jeningrad".
The battle attracted the interest of the US military, which was trying to build a doctrine for urban warfare as the 2003 invasion of Iraq loomed. US military observers were sent to study the fighting. US officers dressed in IDF uniforms were reportedly present during the final stages of the battle. The United States Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory studied the battle, and a Joint Chiefs of Staff delegation was sent to Israel to make changes to US Marine Corps doctrine based on the battle.
Damages
The BBC reported that ten percent of the camp was "virtually rubbed out by a dozen armoured Israeli bulldozers." David Holley, a Major in the British Territorial Army and a military adviser to Amnesty International, reported that an area within the refugee camp of about 100 m by 200 m was flattened. According to Stephen Graham, the IDF had systematically bulldozed an area measuring 160 by 250 m in the Jenin refugee camp. The Hawashin neighbourhood was levelled. Many residents had no advance warning, and some were buried alive.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI) reported that an estimated 4,000 people, more than a quarter of the population of the camp, were rendered homeless because of this destruction. HRW listed 140 buildings, most of which housed multiple families, as completely destroyed, and 200 other buildings as sustaining damage rendering them uninhabitable or unsafe for use. AI said complete destruction affected 164 houses with 374 apartment units, and that other buildings had been partially destroyed. Israel said those numbers were exaggerations.
On May 31, 2002, the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot published an interview with Moshe Nissim, nicknamed "Kurdi Bear", a D-9 operator who took part in the battle. Nissim said he had driven his D-9 for seventy-five hours straight, drinking whiskey to avoid fatigue, and that apart from a two-hour training course before the battle, he had no prior experience in driving a bulldozer. He said he had begged his officers to let him destroy more houses and added:
"I didn't see, with my own eyes, people dying under the blade of the D-9 and I didn't see house falling down on live people. But if there were any, I wouldn't care at all ...
"But the real thing started the day 13 of our soldiers were killed up that alley in the Jenin refugee camp.
"If we had moved into the building where they were ambushed, we would have buried all those Palestinians alive.
"I kept thinking of our soldiers. I didn't feel sorry for all those Palestinians who were left homeless. I just felt sorry for their children, who were not guilty. There was one wounded child, who was shot by Arabs. A Golani paramedic came down and changed his bandages, till he was evacuated. We took care of them, of the children. The soldiers gave them candy. But I had no mercy for the parents of these children. I remembered the picture on television, of the mother who said she will bear children so that they will explode in Tel Aviv. I asked the Palestinian women I saw there: 'Aren't you ashamed?'"
Casualties
See also: Israeli casualties of war and Palestinian casualties of warReporting of casualty numbers during the invasion varied widely and fluctuated day to day. On April 10, the BBC reported that Israel estimated 150 Palestinians had died in Jenin, and Palestinians were saying the number was far higher. That same day, Saeb Erekat, on a phone interview to CNN from Jericho, estimated that there were a total of 500 Palestinians killed during Operation Defensive Shield, this figure also including fatalities outside of the Jenin camp, in other areas of the West Bank. On April 11, Ben Wedeman of CNN reported that Palestinians were reporting 500 dead, while international relief agencies were saying possibly as many as 200; he noted that his efforts to independently verify the claims had so far come to naught since people were being prevented from entering the camp by Israeli soldiers.
On April 12, Brigadier-General Ron Kitri said on Army Radio that there were apparently hundreds of Palestinians killed in Jenin. He later retracted this statement. Secretary-General of the Palestinian Authority, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, said that thousands of Palestinians had been killed and buried in mass graves, or lay under houses destroyed in Jenin and Nablus. On April 13, Palestinian Information Minister, Yasser Abed Rabbo, accused Israel of killing 900 Palestinians in the camp and burying them in mass graves. On April 14, Haaretz reported that the exact number of Palestinian dead was still unknown, but that the IDF placed the toll between 100 and 200. On April 18, Zalman Shoval, adviser to Sharon, said that only about 65 bodies had been recovered, five of them civilians. On April 30, Qadoura Mousa, director of the Fatah for the northern West Bank, said the number of dead was 56.
Based on figures provided by the Jenin hospital and the IDF, the UN report placed the Palestinian death toll at 52 Palestinian, around half of whom were thought to be civilians. In 2004, Haaretz journalists Amos Harel and Avi Isacharoff wrote that 23 Israeli soldiers had died and 52 had been wounded; Palestinian casualties were 53 dead, hundreds wounded and about 200 captured. Human Rights Watch reported that at least 52 Palestinians died of whom at least 22 were civilians and at least 27 were suspected militants, and that it was unable to conclusively determine the status of the remaining three. According to retired IDF General Shlomo Gazit, the death toll was 55 Palestinians. Israeli officials estimated that 52 Palestinians were killed: 38 armed men and 14 civilians.
IDF and Israeli government sources reported that 23 Israeli soldiers were killed and 75 wounded. The UN report also noted that 23 IDF soldiers had been killed. The only exception was retired IDF General Shlomo Gazit, who initially said that 33 soldiers had died in Jenin. This contradicted not only most IDF and other sources, but also IDF figures of 30 Israeli deaths total in Operation Defensive Shield.
Massacre allegations
The battle attracted widespread international attention due to allegations by Palestinians that a massacre had been committed. Reporters from various international media outlets quoted local residents who described houses being bulldozed with families still inside, helicopters firing indiscriminately into civilian areas, ambulances being prevented from reaching the wounded, summary executions of Palestinians, and stories of bodies being driven away in trucks or left in the sewers and bulldozed. Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian cabinet minister, accused the Israelis of trying to cover up the killing of civilians. The CNN correspondent noted that due to the IDF closure of the camp, there was "no way of confirming" the stories. During and immediately after the battle, the United Nations and several human rights NGOs also expressed concern about the possibility of a massacre. A British forensic expert who was part of an Amnesty International team granted access to Jenin on April 18 said, "the evidence before us at the moment doesn't lead us to believe that the allegations are anything other than truthful and that therefore there are large numbers of civilian dead underneath these bulldozed and bombed ruins that we see."
Israel denied charges of a massacre, and a lone April 9 report in the Israeli press stating Foreign Minister Shimon Peres privately referred to the battle as a "massacre" was immediately followed by a statement from Peres expressing concern that "Palestinian propaganda is liable to accuse Israel that a 'massacre' took place in Jenin rather than a pitched battle against heavily armed terrorists."
Subsequent investigations and reports by the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Time magazine, and the BBC all concluded there was no massacre of civilians, with estimated death tolls of 46–55 people among reports by the IDF, the Jenin office of the United Nations, and the Jenin Hospital. A team of four Palestinian-appointed investigators reporting to Fatah numbered total casualties of 56, as disclosed by Kadoura Mousa Kadoura, the director of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement for the northern West Bank.
The UN report to the Secretary General noted "Palestinians had claimed that between 400 and 500 people had been killed, fighters and civilians together. They had also claimed a number of summary executions and the transfer of corpses to an unknown place outside the city of Jenin. The number of Palestinian fatalities, on the basis of bodies recovered to date, in Jenin and the refugee camp in this military operation can be estimated at around 55." While noting the number of civilian deaths might rise as rubble was cleared, the report continued, "nevertheless, the most recent estimates by UNRWA and ICRC show that the number of missing people is constantly declining as the IDF releases Palestinians from detention." Human Rights Watch completed its report on Jenin in early May, stating "there was no massacre," but accusing the IDF of war crimes, and Amnesty International's report concluded "No matter whose figures one accepts, "there was no massacre." Amnesty's report specifically observed that "after the IDF temporarily withdrew from Jenin refugee camp on April 17, UNRWA set up teams to use the census lists to account for all the Palestinians (some 14,000) believed to be resident of the camp on April 3, 2002. Within five weeks all but one of the residents was accounted for." A BBC report later noted, "Palestinian authorities made unsubstantiated claims of a wide-scale massacre," and a reporter for The Observer opined that what happened in Jenin was not a massacre.
War crimes allegations
At the same time, Human rights organizations and some media reports charged Israel with war crimes. Human Rights Watch reported that of the Palestinians killed, "many of them were killed willfully or unlawfully, and in some cases constituted war crimes." Examples included the case of 57-year-old Kamal Zugheir who was shot and then run over by IDF tanks while in his wheelchair, and that of 37-year-old Jamal Fayid, a quadraplegic crushed to death in the rubble of his home after an IDF bulldozer advanced upon it, refusing to allow his family to intervene to remove him. It also documented the killing of a Palestinian militant who had already been wounded. In November, Amnesty International reported that there was "clear evidence" that the IDF committed war crimes against Palestinian civilians, including unlawful killings and torture, in Jenin and Nablus. The report also accused Israel of blocking medical care, using people as human shields and bulldozing houses with residents inside, as well as beating prisoners, which resulted in one death, and preventing ambulances and aid organizations from reaching the areas of combat even after the fighting had reportedly been stopped. Amnesty criticized the UN report, noting that its officials did not actually visit Jenin. The Observer reporter, Peter Beaumont, wrote that what happened in Jenin was not a massacre, but that the mass destruction of houses was a war crime. Some reports said that Israel's restriction of access to Jenin and refusal to allow the UN investigation access to the area were evidence of a coverup, a charge echoed by Mouin Rabbani, Director of the Palestinian American Research Center in Ramallah.
On the other side, Israeli media sources and analysts suggested media bias and propaganda efforts were the source of the allegations. Haaretz editor Hanoch Marmari stated, "some correspondents might have been obsessive in their determination to unearth a massacre in a refugee camp". Mohammed Dajani of Al-Quds University said that the Palestinian Authority wanted "to turn Jenin into an 'Alamo episode'. Here the press was a willing partner they aspired to make Jenin a symbol of resistance to Palestinians". In May 2009, the IDF released a videotape showing what it called "a phony funeral that the Palestinians organized in order to multiply the number of casualties in Jenin," wherein a live person is wrapped in a green sheet and marched in a procession. LAW, the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights, held a press conference on May 8, disputing the conclusions drawn by Israel. LAW stated that Mohammad Bakri who was in Jenin on April 28, making his documentary film Jenin, Jenin, shot the same footage from the ground, and that it shows a group of children playing "funeral" near the cemetery. LAW added that, "The media uncritically took up the Israeli spokesmen conclusions, without investigating what the footage actually shows."
Harel and Issacharoff wrote that the IDF's misconduct with the media, including Kitri's statement, contributed to the allegations of massacre. Mofaz later admitted that the limitations imposed on the media were a mistake. Head of the Operations Directorate, General Dan Harel, said: "Today, I would send a reporter in every APC". IDF Spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, said the decision not to allow reporters into the camp was a difficult one: "The press people said 'Listen, the journalists aren't going to like it' and the operational people said 'We don't care about the journalists right now and about our image, we don't want them inside.' It had to do with the way we were working operationally inside the camp. We had infantry coming in from 360 degrees which means that you're firing in all different directions. It's not like a journalist can be on one side or another. It's a very difficult type of combat to coordinate with the forces, let alone with somebody you don't know who's inside."
In Pierre Rehov's documentary The Road to Jenin, a Palestinian doctor claimed that on the second day, the city's hospital was hit by eleven tank shells. However, in both Rehov's film and Richard Landes's 2005 film Pallywood, the supposed hits shown on Jenin hospital were compared to an actual building hit by Merkava tank shelling, suggesting that the supposed hit marks were staged.
Lorenzo Cremonesi, the correspondent for the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in Jerusalem, writes in a 2009 article, that he slipped past the army barricades and entered the Jenin camp on April 13, 2002. He says the hospital was almost deserted as doctors played cards in the emergency room and that he spoke to 25 lightly wounded patients who told heartrending stories but when asked for names of the dead and urged to show where the bodies were, became evasive. "In short, it was all talk and nothing could be verified," wrote Cremonesi. "At the end of that day, I wrote that the death toll was not more than 50 and most of them were combatants". Cremonesi criticized Israel's exclusion of the media from Jenin and from Gaza during the 2009 war, saying, "If you hide something from me, that means first and foremost that you want to hide it, and secondly, that you have done something wrong."
UN fact-finding mission
On April 18, as Israeli troops began pulling out of Jenin and Nablus, UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen entered the camp. He told reporters that the devastation was, "horrific beyond belief," and relayed his view that it was "morally repugnant" that Israel had not allowed emergency workers into the camp after the battle with Palestinian gunmen had ended. On April 19, the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1405 to send a fact-finding mission to Jenin. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, that Israel would welcome a UN official "to clarify the facts", saying "Israel has nothing to hide regarding the operation in Jenin. Our hands are clean". Abed Rabbo said the mission was, "the first step toward making Sharon stand trial before an international tribunal".
The composition of the fact-finding team was announced on April 22. Led by former Finnish President, Martti Ahtisaari, the other two members were Cornelio Sommaruga, former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (controversial in Israel for previous "Red Swastika" remarks), and Sadako Ogata, the former UN high commissioner for refugees who was Japan's special envoy on Afghan reconstruction.
Official Israeli sources expressed surprise that they were not consulted as to the composition of the team, adding that, "We expected that the operational aspects of the fact-finding mission would be carried out by military experts." On April 22, Israeli Defense Minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer expressed his disappointment at the team's make-up, and his hope that the mission would not overstep its mandate. Peres asked Annan to deny reports that the mission would look into events outside the refugee camp, and that the findings would have legal validity. Annan said the findings would not be legally binding, and that the mission would only investigate events inside the camp, but may have to interview residents currently displaced outside.
On April 23, Gideon Saar, the cabinet secretary, threatened to ban the team from entering Jenin. In private discussions, Giora Eiland, Major General and Head of the IDF Operation Branch, convinced Shaul Mofaz that the team would ask to investigate officers and soldiers, and that it might accuse Israel of war crimes, paving the way for the sending of an international force. Sharon accepted Eiland and Mofaz's position, and announced Israel's decision that the UN team was no longer acceptable on April 24, citing the lack of military experts. The US rebuked Sharon's decision, and a White House official said, "We were the sponsors of that and we want it implemented as written. We support the initiative of the secretary general."
Annan initially refused to delay the mission. Expressing Israeli sentiment that the world ignored its victims, Ben-Eliezer said: "In the last month alone, 137 people were slaughtered by Palestinians and nearly 700 wounded. Is there any one who is investigating that?" Saeb Erekat accused Israel of "trying to sabotage the mission. I believe that they have a big thing to hide." On April 25, the UN agreed to postpone the arrival of the team by two days, and acceded to an Israeli request that two military officers be added to the team. Annan said talks with Israel had been, "very, very constructive and I'm sure we'll be able to sort out our differences". Peres said that a delay would give the Israeli cabinet the opportunity to discuss the mission before the team arrived.
Avi Pazner, an Israeli Government spokesman, said he expected the UN mission to investigate "terrorist activity" and guarantee immunity for Israeli soldiers. Israel Radio reported that Israel was also pushing for the right for both sides to review the team's report before its presentation to Annan. Following a lengthy cabinet meeting on April 28, Reuven Rivlin, the Israeli Communications Minister, told reporters that the UN had reneged on its agreements with Israel over the team, and so it would not be allowed to arrive. Speaking for the cabinet, he said that the composition of the team and its terms of reference made it inevitable that its report would blame Israel.
The UN Security Council convened the following day to discuss Israel's decision not to grant entry to the UN team. Meanwhile, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobby in Washington was called to pressure Annan and George W. Bush. On April 30, Annan urged that the UN team, which had been waiting in Geneva to start its mission, be disbanded, and it was on May 2. On May 4, Israel was isolated in an open debate in the Security Council. The deputy US ambassador to the UN, James Cunningham, said it was "regrettable" Israel had decided not to cooperate with the fact-finding team. Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian observer to the UN, said the council failed to give Annan its full support, and had caved to "blackmailing" by the Israeli Government. The General Assembly passed a resolution condemning Israel's military action in Jenin by 74 votes to four, with 54 abstentions. The Bush administration supported Israel as part of a deal in which Sharon agreed to lift the siege of the Mukataa in Ramallah.
Reconstruction
In the aftermath of the invasion, many camp residents ended up living in temporary shelters elsewhere. The camp itself became the site of intense efforts at documenting, recording and expressing the experiences of those displaced and affected by the incursion. In discussing how to properly honor those who had fallen, one proposal suggested leaving the destruction, at least in the Hawashin neighborhood, exactly as it was, as a memorial and testament to struggle and sacrifice. Camp residents, however, insisted that the camp be rebuilt almost exactly as it had been, while also establishing a museum of memory in the Old Hijaz Railway building. They rejected the proposal of the Israeli housing minister to rebuild the camp at a nearby site with enlarged roads, viewing it as an attempt to erase the political reality of the camps whose existence they see as living testaments to the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight.
See also
- Jenin, a song by singer/songwriter David Rovics
References
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- ^ Harel and Isacharoff (2004), pp. 257–258
- ^ "Report of the Secretary-General prepared pursuant to General Assembly resolution ES-10/10 (Report on Jenin)". United Nations. Archived from the original on September 11, 2009. Retrieved September 3, 2009.
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- Every Palestinian male between 15 and 55 was counted as a militant. See "Israel and the Occupied Territories Shielded from Scrutiny: IDF violations in Jenin and Nablus". Amnesty International. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
- Dickey, Christopher (January 14, 2009). "The Crying Game". Newsweek. - "histrionic claims by Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat that 1,000 civilians had been killed. (In fact, about 50 Palestinians had fought and died in a ferocious battle that also cost the lives of 23 Israeli soldiers.)"
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- "A subsequent UN investigation determined that 52 Palestinians had been killed in the fighting, most of them armed members of Palestinian militias and militant groups. A total of 23 Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting." - Krauss, Joseph. "Weary West Bank fighters watch Gaza assault from afar". The Jordan Times. AFP. - "Fifty-four Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed in the melee."
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{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - Surveillance and Control in Israel/Palestine: Population, Territory and Power, p. 134
- Graham, 2004, p. 207.
- ^ MacDonald, 2007, p. 82.
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- Winslow (2008), pp. 69–70.
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"I made them a stadium in the middle of the camp". By Tsadok Yeheskeli, Yediot Aharonot - "Israeli pull-out on hold after bombing". BBC. April 10, 2002. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
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- ^ Herzog & Gazit (2005), p. 433
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- "Evidence and Reality Collide in a Battle of Words". Sydney Morning Herald. April 16, 2002. ISSN 0312-6315. Retrieved September 21, 2008.: A camp resident who worked at the Jenin hospital said: "I saw the Israelis line up five young men with their legs spread and their hands up as they faced a wall. The soldiers then sprayed them from head to toe with gunfire."
- ^ "Conflict in the Middle East: Fierce Fighting Continues in Jenin". CNN.com. April 12, 2002. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
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Bibliography
- Europa Regional Surveys of the World 2004 Series (2004). The Middle East and North Africa 2004 (50th, illustrated ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-85743-184-1.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - Graham, Stephen (2004). Cities, war, and terrorism: towards an urban geopolitics (22nd, illustrated ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-1575-9.
- Harel, Amos; Avi Isacharoff (2004). The Seventh War (in Hebrew). Tel-Aviv: Yedioth Aharonoth Books and Chemed Books. p. 431. ISBN 965-511-767-7.
- Herzog, Chaim; Shlomo Gazit (2005). The Arab-Israeli Wars: War and Peace in the Middle East. Vintage. p. 560. ISBN 1-4000-7963-2.
- Gresh, Alain; Vidal, Dominique (2004). The new A-Z of the Middle East (2nd, illustrated ed.). I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-86064-326-2.
- Human Rights Watch (2003). Human Rights Watch World Report, 2003 (Revised ed.). Human Rights Watch. ISBN 978-1-56432-285-2.
- Karsh, Efraim (October 26, 2004). Arafat's War: The Man and His Battle for Israeli Conquest. Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-4158-7.
- Gutmann, Stephanie (2005). The Other War: Israelis, Palestinians and the Struggle for Media Supremacy. Encounter Books. ISBN 1-893554-94-5.
- MacDonald, Théodore Harney (2007). The global human right to health: dream or possibility?. Radcliffe Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84619-201-2.
- McDonald, Avril; Fischer, H. (2005). Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law, Volume 5. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-90-6704-189-8.
- Reinhart, Tanya (2006). The road map to nowhere: Israel/Palestine since 2003 (Illustrated ed.). Verso. ISBN 978-1-84467-076-5.
- Sa'di, Ahmad H.; Abu-Lughod, Lila (2007). Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the claims of memory (Illustrated ed.). Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-13579-5.
- Selby, Jan (2003). Water, power and politics in the Middle East: the other Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Illustrated ed.). I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-86064-934-9.
- Winslow, Philip C. (September 1, 2008). Victory for Us Is to See You Suffer: In the West Bank with the Palestinians and the Israelis. Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0-8070-6907-3.
Further reading
- Goldberg, Brett (2003). A Psalm in Jenin. Israel: Modan Publishing House. p. 304. ISBN 965-7141-03-6.
- Baroud, Ramzy Mohammed, ed. (2003). Searching Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts of the Israeli Invasion 2002. Seattle, Washington: Cune Press. p. 256. ISBN 1-885942-34-6.
External links
- Report of the Secretary-General on Jenin. United Nations. June 7, 2002. Archived from the original on September 11, 2008. Retrieved September 22, 2008.
- Israel and the Occupied Territories: Shielded from scrutiny: IDF violations in Jenin and Nablus. Amnesty International. November 4, 2002. Archived from the original on September 29, 2008. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
- "Jenin: IDF Military Operations". Human Rights Watch. 14, No. 3 (E) (May 2002). Archived from the original on September 14, 2008. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
- Matt Rees, Untangling Jenin's Tale, Time Magazine, May 13, 2002
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