VARIOUS: ISRAELI CAMPAIGN IN JENIN REFUGEE CAMP CONTINUES TO CLAIM LIVES INCLUDING THAT OF NINE YEAR-OLD GIRL

Record ID: 275254

  • Title: VARIOUS: ISRAELI CAMPAIGN IN JENIN REFUGEE CAMP CONTINUES TO CLAIM LIVES INCLUDING THAT OF NINE YEAR-OLD GIRL
  • Date: 3rd March 2002
  • Summary: (W4) JENIN, WEST BANK (MARCH 2, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV PALESTINIANS WALKING IN STREETS; SLV EXTERIOR OF DAMAGED HOUSE, PALESTINIAN CLIMBING INTO HOUSE; SCU ZOOM OUT BULLET HOLES IN DAMAGED BUILDING (3 SHOTS) 0.24 2. SLV MORE DAMAGED BUILDINGS AND VEHICLES; SLV DAMAGED STRUCTURES; SLV PALESTINIANS WALKING THROUGH DAMAGED STREETS (8 SHOTS) 1.21
  • Embargoed: 18th March 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JENIN AND BEIT JALA, WEST BANK / JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVAC8VCP6UG00SVGO7EDO1EAFUIE
  • Story Text: Israel's campaign in the Jenin refugee camp, which
    began two days ago, continues to claim lives, including that
    of a nine-year-old girl killed by fire from an Israeli
    helicopter.

    Israel's army on Saturday (March 2, 2002) said it would
    operate wherever it saw fit in order to protect Israeli lives.

    At least 20 Palestinians, some of them civilians,
    including a nine-year-old girl, and two Israeli soldiers have
    been killed in fierce fighting since the soldiers, backed by
    tanks and
    helicopters, launched the raids into the Balata and Jenin
    refugee camps early on Thursday (February 28).

    More than 200 Palestinians have also been wounded in an
    operation Israel says is designed to deny shelter to gunmen
    and bombers it blames for killing of scores of its citizens
    since an uprising against Israeli occupation began 17 months
    ago.

    Israeli Government spokesman Arie Mekel said: "The purpose
    of this operation is to try and put an end once and for all to
    the terrorist infrastructure and these so called refugee
    camps, because for a long time now, the terrorists and the
    terrorist organisations are using the inhabitants of these
    refugee camps as human shields and from there..this is the
    centre from where suicide bombers are emerging, the drive-by
    shooters. We have found Qassam-2 rockets, we have found plants
    where they produce these rockets".

    Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has urged
    international action to halt what he described as a massacre
    and accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of leading the
    Middle East towards chaos.

    Dozens of homes had been wrecked as soldiers smashed their
    way in, overturning furniture and trashing equipment, in an
    apparent hunt for armed militants on Israel's wanted list.

    The raids, which followed a Palestinian suicide bombing
    that wounded three Israeli policemen at a West Bank checkpoint
    on Wednesday (February 27), mark Israel's fiercest assaults on
    refugee camps in 17 months of conflict.


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