Jenin

Jenin (in Arabic: جنين, in Hebrew: ג ' נין) is a town of the West Bank and an important agricultural center Palestinian. The name of Jenin also indicates the district to which the city belongs as a whole, and the refugee camp of Jenin.

This city, which was under the administration of the Palestinian Autorité since the application of the Accords of Oslo, was again under Israeli control during the military operation " Rempart" carried out in 2002.

Israeli incursion in Jenin in 2002

The attack against the refugee camp of Jenin, regarded then by the Israelis as a seedbed of Kamikaze S, lasted from April 3rd to 11th 2002, within the framework of the Opération Rampart. This operation had as an aim, according to Israel, to seek members of terrorist organizations, following an attack perpetrated by the Hamas which made 29 dead with Netanya on March 27th, 2002, the evening of the celebration of Pessa' H (Jewish Passover), that is to say the most fatal Attentat of the the Second Intifada. The battle opposed Israeli soldiers supported by tanks and helicopters to members of three Palestinian organizations, the Hamas, the Islamic Jihad Palestinian and the Brigades of the Al-Aqsa martyrs, cut off in the center from the refugee camp.

A polemic was born during the attack from the camp from Jenin because of violence from the attack, in particular following the total destruction of a district of the camp, levelled with the bulldozer by the Israeli armed . The first figures published are contradictory, reflecting the state of ignorance where even men close to the ground were. Palestinian sources indicated a number going from 400 to 500 dead Palestinians, the Labor leader Shimon Peres had qualified the operation of “massacre” according to the daily newspaper Haaretz in its edition of April 9th, 2002. Humanitarian organization international Human Rights Watch has published official statement on May 3rd, 2002 in which she announces to have been able to identify 52 victims palestiennes, including 22 civil, and estimates that the “Defense forces Israeli committed war crimes” at the time of this operation. The specialist in the questions of defense to the daily newspaper Haaretz , Zeev Schiff, written in the edition of April 15th, 2002 that, “after the end of the engagements, during the first excavations, 80 corpses were found. It is estimated that the number of the victims in the engagements rises with some 200 Palestinians, including civilians, of which a part is buried under the debris of the ploughed up houses” . Colonel Ron Kitri, spokesperson of the Israeli army, takes again this figure in the daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot of April 19th, 2002.

However, they were there indications given in the fire of the action, whereas no accurate information was available. On the other hand, the figures given thereafter of various sources agree. A report/ratio of the general secretary of the United Nations, published on August 1st, 2002, estimates that the full number of deaths Palestinian is 52, quoting at the same time Israeli sources (Tsahal) and Palestinian (the hospital of Jenin). It is this order of magnitude of 52 dead which makes from now on authority. Two years after the events, the director of the hospital of Jenin, Mohamed Abu Ghali, interviewed by the Moslem site French Oumma.com, declares that “54 people were killed” at the time of the combat of April 2002.

This battle made 23 dead among the Israeli soldiers. Several thousands of inhabitants of Jenin had to flee the city at the beginning of the operation. Approximately 160 dwellings were completely destroyed in the camp and of many others were damaged, more than 4.000 people found themselves without shelter.

UNO announced the creation of a board of inquiry - whose arrival was not authorized at the beginning by the Israeli government. Indeed, the Israeli authorities refused the access of the camp to the humanitarian organizations and the media, during their offensive and continued to prevent the access of the refugee camp to the humanitarians, several days after the end of military operations. Israel feared to it not neutrality of the board of inquiry, one of its members had a presentiment of having publicly compared star of David with swastika.

The Opération Rampart began at the end of March and officially finished in May 2002.

Random links: