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Culled from BBC online

Regards

Manneh
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'No Jenin massacre' says rights group
The report claims that war crimes were committed


By Paul Wood
BBC Middle East correspondent in Jerusalem


The campaigning group Human Rights Watch has completed a report into the
Israeli army's operation in the Palestinian town of Jenin.


Human Rights Watch report
The report says there was no massacre as the Palestinians have claimed, but it
does accuse the Israeli army of committing war crimes.

Human Rights Watch has done a separate report on suicide bombings targeting
Israeli civilians as well.

The UN may not be coming to investigate what happened in Jenin but the
respected group human rights watch has finished its own report.

Death toll questions

Much of the controversy about Jenin has concerned the number of dead with the
Palestinians claiming hundreds and the Israelis saying less than 45, and all of
them fighters.

Human Rights Watch says at least 52 Palestinians died of whom 22 were
civilians. Many of the civilians were killed wilfully and unlawfully the report
says.

Palestinian civilians were used as human shields and the Israeli army employed
indiscriminate and excessive force, the report says.

The report gives examples - it says that a 57-year-old Palestinian man Kamil
Sagir was shot and then run over by Israeli tanks even though his wheelchair
was flying a white flag.

Another case is that of 37-year-old Jamil Fayed, a paralysed man who was
crushed in the rubble of his home.
Human Rights Watch says the Israeli army refused to allow the family time to
remove him from their home before a bulldozer destroyed it.

The Israelis have denied committing atrocities. They say that Palestinian
gunmen used their own people as shields against incoming fire.

Many Israelis will tell you they could just have bombed Jenin from the air. The
fact that infantry troops were risked is evidence of Israel's concern for
civilians, it is argued.

Nevertheless, Human Rights Watch insists that some Israeli soldiers must face
prosecution for what happened in Jenin.

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