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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~