Jenin
Before the second intifada began, Jenin was one of the Palestinian towns with
the closest links to Israel. In part this closeness is geographical, as the
town lies only 12 kilometres away from the "green line" separating the West
Bank from Israel. Many of the refugees in Jenin come from villages in Israel
only a few kilometres away, many families living in Jenin have relatives in
Israel. Previously a large number of Palestinians from Jenin governorate
worked in Israel and many Israelis came to Jenin to purchase cheap goods.
Major-General Giora Eiland told Amnesty International delegates that the IDF
considered Jenin refugee camp a centre of suicide bombers where the PA funded
a huge industry of "terrorist" capabilities. He said that 90 of the Israelis
killed in the 18 months up to May 2002 were killed by people coming from
Jenin. According to the Israeli Government, from October 2000 to April 2002,
28 suicide attacks were planned and launched from Jenin camp.
The PA Governor of Jenin, in a discussion with Amnesty International
delegates in January 2002, stressed previous good relations between Jenin
residents and Israelis and stated his belief that the number of attacks on
Israelis from Jenin was related to the number of people from Jenin
Governorate who had been killed during the intifada; each killing of a
Palestinian might motivate friends and relatives to avenge him. The first
suicide attack by a resident of Jenin during the present intifada took place
in May 2001, eight months after the beginning of the intifada.(4)
During 2001 the IDF had heavily bombed Jenin's administrative and police
buildings, including the prison, and had carried out a number of incursions
into Jenin before April 2002. In December 2001 for 27 days all roads leaving
the town were blocked and the town was cut off from the surrounding area;
afterwards the Israeli security presence and closures continued to weigh
heavily on the life of the people.
The IDF launched a three-day incursion into Jenin refugee camp on 28 February
2002 withdrawing on 2 March. During the incursion into Jenin refugee camp
under Operation Defensive Shield Jenin and many neighbouring villages were
declared closed military areas, barred to the outside world. Operations in
Jenin and the refugee camp lasted from 3 until 18 April. However, IDF
incursions into Jenin city and refugee camp took place on numerous occasions
during April, June and July until the IDF reoccupied Jenin with other West
Bank cities during Operation Determined Path.
Unlawful killings
According to hospital lists reviewed by Amnesty International there were 54
Palestinian deaths between 3 and 17 April 2002 in both Jenin refugee camp and
Jenin city as a result of the incursion and subsequent fighting. This figure
includes seven women, four children and six men over the age of 55. Six had
been crushed by houses. The body of one person known to have died by being
crushed in his house has not been recovered.(5)
The records of Palestinians killed in the incursion and admitted to Jenin
City Hospital reflect the impact of the IDF blockade round the hospital
between 5 and 15 April. Five bodies were brought to the hospital, which is
just at the edge of the refugee camp, on 3 April, the first day of the IDF
incursion into the camp. One body was brought in on 4 April. After that the
hospital and the camp were under tight siege and although the hospital stands
at the entrance to the camp, not a single corpse was brought into the
hospital from 5 until 15 April, the day after a petition filed by two human
rights organizations, Adalah and LAW, before the Israeli High Court resulted
in the State agreeing to allow the ICRC access to the refugee camp.
Most bodies of those fighters or those not involved in fighting killed
between 5 and 15 April remained where they lay; a few were taken from streets
to homes, a few were buried by their families in yards or back gardens, and
four were taken to the al-Razi Hospital. Amnesty International delegates who
entered the refugee camp on the departure of the IDF on 17 April found ruins
smelling of death, with parts of human bodies sticking out of the rubble of
destroyed houses.
The list of the wounded brought to Jenin City Hospital shows that on 3 and 4
April, 24 wounded Palestinians were admitted to the hospital. In the 10 days
between 5 and 15 April only 10 wounded Palestinians, who had succeeded in
crossing the IDF cordon, managed to enter the hospital. The admission lists
of the al-Shifa Hospital tell the same story; between 4 and 10 April only one
person, a child, was apparently admitted to the hospital. On 10 and 11 April
a total of nine wounded people were admitted. After that there were no
admissions of wounded Palestinians until the IDF started to withdraw from the
camp on 16-17 April.
During the fighting Palestinian residents and Palestinian and foreign
journalists and others outside the camp saw hundreds of missiles being fired
into the houses of the camp from Apache helicopters flying sortie after
sortie. The sight of the firepower being thrown at Jenin refugee camp led
those who witnessed the air raids, including military experts and the media,
to believe that scores, at least, of Palestinians had been killed. The tight
cordon round the refugee camp and the main hospital from 4-17 April meant
that the outside world had no means of knowing what was going on inside the
refugee camp; a few journalists were able to slip into the area at risk to
their lives after 13 April, but only saw a small portion of the camp,
including some dead bodies before leaving. Those within the camp reachable by
telephone were confined to their homes and could not tell what was happening.
It was in these circumstances that stories of a "massacre" spread. Even the
IDF leadership appeared unclear as to how many Palestinians had died: General
Ron Kitrey said on 12 April that hundreds had died in Jenin before correcting
himself a few hours later saying that hundreds had died or been wounded.
When Amnesty International delegates went to Jenin Hospital on 17 April they
found only "walking wounded" - those who had managed to make their own way
through the IDF cordon. Doctors and diplomatic or other military experts who
visited the scene, aware that in armed combat there is usually a ratio of
three or four seriously wounded people to one dead person, wondered where
were the heavily wounded. Stories of bodies buried in secret places or
carried away in refrigerated vans spread. After the IDF temporarily withdrew
from Jenin refugee camp on 17 April, 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 3 April 2002. Within five weeks all but one of the
residents was accounted for.
The following cases of unlawful killings were amongst those documented during
the course of Amnesty Internationals research in Jenin. Amnesty International
submitted all of these cases to the IDF for clarification and comment in June
and July 2002 but has received no answer. In none of these cases does it
appear that the Israeli authorities initiated proper investigations. Amnesty
International is concerned that the failure to investigate cases of unlawful
killings gives members of the IDF a carte blanche to continue.
Mundher Muhammad Amin al-Hajj
On 3 April, the first day of the incursion, 21-year-old Mundher al-Hajj,
reportedly a member of a Palestinian armed group, was shot and injured. Staff
at the al-Razi hospital told Amnesty International that they made three
attempts to rescue Mundher al-Hajj carrying white flags but each time they
were fired upon by the IDF. Hospital staff were able to reach him
approximately two hours after he was first reported in need of medical help.
By that time he was dead.
Samar Qasrawi, a nurse, was one of the first to attempt to reach the injured
man; she stated:
"On the morning of 3 April ... between about 11.30 and 12, we could hear
shooting around the hospital area from helicopters and tanks. Around this
time, someone came passing from the stairs in the mosque into the hospital
and yelled that someone was injured. I went with some other nurses down the
stairs and toward the mosque gate. When we were outside, we headed towards
the injured man. We were carrying white flags. I saw three tanks. They began
to shoot at us. They told us in Arabic,
'if you come back, I will shoot at you'.
I could not see the injured man but I heard him say 'God help us'. We
returned to the hospital and took cover on the second floor. When the firing
stopped, we made a second attempt to reach the injured man. We changed
direction and decided to go towards the bathroom in the mosque. There is a
wall and then some windows and the injured man was lying on the stairs on the
other side. I could not see him.
"I started to talk to him. When I began to speak, I realized he was so close.
He said to me, 'please my sister I am dying, can you rescue me because I am
dying'. I tried to calm him. When I was talking to him he was shouting, his
voice was like fire. I saw a soldier then and he was coming towards me and he
took up a position like a sniper. I again left and went back to the second
floor of the hospital. After about 10 minutes, I went back.
On the third attempt, I asked the injured man if he could move closer to the
gate. He told me that he was not able to and that he had been shot in both
his arms and legs. I told him then to speak slowly and softly because if the
soldiers hear they will shoot him. I then asked him if I were to throw a rope
toward him, could he pull himself toward me. He said 'No, I am injured in my
arms and legs'. At this time, the soldiers began to shoot towards the mosque
and hospital. There was a spray of fire towards the man. I think he was hit
in the back.
"I again went back to the hospital. The doctors in the hospital had been
trying to coordinate the injured man's rescue through the ICRC and the PRCS.
They were continuing to try and get permission to reach the man. I again went
back to the mosque and tried to talk to the man. I said 'my brother, my
brother'. He said to me in a very soft voice, 'I cannot hear you very well'.
Unlike the other times, his voice was not strong. So I went back to the
hospital and spoke with the head of the hospital. He told me that the ICRC
had negotiated for two nurses to rescue the injured man and asked if I would
go. I told him I would and together with another nurse and a female doctor,
we left. But when we reached the man, he was dead. His eyes were open.
We tried but we could not carry his body. So I went back to get help and two
other people went and together with the two who stayed with the body, he was
carried to the hospital. He arrived roughly two hours after we first tried to
rescue him."
The hospital medical report on Mundher al-Hajjs injuries shows that in
addition to injuries to his arms and legs, there were shots to his back.
Interviews with Samar Qasrawi as well as with Dr Mahmud Abu Alaih, who
examined him after death, suggested that the wound to the back may have been
inflicted by a sniper while he was lying on the steps.
When he described his injuries to the nurse he did not mention any back
wound. Amnesty International delegates examined the site and saw that IDF
soldiers were in a building above and to the left of the place where Mundher
al-Hajj was lying and would have been able to see him clearly. International
humanitarian law is clear in this regard. No medical care can be denied a
person who is wounded and no longer engaged in hostilities. At the time
Mundher al-Hajj was wounded, no longer armed, and did not pose a threat to
soldiers, he became hors de combat.
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