VARIOUS: ISRAEL DELAYS UN FACT-FINDING TEAM DUE TO INVESTIGATE PALESTINIAN CLAIMS OF MASSACRE IN JENIN REFUGEE CAMP

Record ID: 400795

  • Title: VARIOUS: ISRAEL DELAYS UN FACT-FINDING TEAM DUE TO INVESTIGATE PALESTINIAN CLAIMS OF MASSACRE IN JENIN REFUGEE CAMP
  • Date: 29th April 2002
  • Summary: (U4) JENIN CAMP, WEST BANK (APRIL 28, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV GENERAL SECRETARY OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, IRENE KHAN, TOURING CAMP; MV MAN PUTTING RUBBLE BACK ONTO WALL, TRYING TO REBUILD WALL/ CHILDREN; MV KHAN TALKING TO RESIDENTS (3 SHOTS) 0.36 2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN IN CAMP "We tried to take rubble off him (her son) but the bul
  • Embargoed: 14th May 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JENIN AND GILO CHECKPOINT, WEST BANK/KIRYAT GAT, ISRAEL, JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA369Z7LY2797U5Z1KCXW0WV30B
  • Story Text: Israel has delayed a United Nations fact-finding team
    due to travel to the Middle East to investigate Palestinian
    claims of a massacre by the Israeli army in the refugee camp
    of Jenin. A British military adviser to Amnesty International
    probing Jenin refugee camp ruins has dismissed the allegations
    but says the Israeli army apparently destroyed buildings in
    rage after tough Palestinian resistance abated.

    Secretary-General of Amnesty International, Irene Khan,
    on Sunday (April 28, 2002) toured Jenin camp, surveying the
    destruction and talking to residents.

    One woman described how her handicapped son had been
    unable to move from the house as Israeli forces began
    bulldozing the walls.

    "We tried to take rubble off him (her son) but the
    bulldozer continued to work and demolish the house despite
    calls from us and others to stop. Then we left the house and
    we left our son there. And we had to watch him for three days
    dying under the rubble," she said.

    Khan described the devastation as simply appalling.

    "It is unimaginable that it could be done by man," she said.

    "If this was an earthquake it would be understandable.

    This was systematically done and according to our military
    expert it was done after people had surrendered."
    Priests and religious groups, meanwhile, marched to the
    Gilo checkpoint between Jerusalem and Bethlehem to mark
    orthodox Palm Sunday and protest Israel's continued occupation
    of the town.

    Tensions remain high after a Palestinian attack on a
    Jewish settlement in the West Bank on Saturday killed four
    Israelis, including a five-year-old girl shot in her bed.

    Three gunmen cut through the perimeter fence surrounding
    the settlement of Adora, near Hebron, while many residents
    were attending Sabbath morning prayers.

    Attackers sprayed gunfire into one house, killing
    five-year-old Danielle Shefi in her bed. They broke into
    another house and shot a couple in their bedroom, killing a
    45-year-old woman. Two men were shot dead in the street.

    Hundreds gathered for Danielle's funeral in Kiryat Gat on
    Sunday (April 28).

    The attack was the first deadly Palestinian raid on a West
    Bank settlement since the army invaded Palestinian-ruled
    cities a month ago.

    The army said troops on the outskirts of Hebron later
    killed an armed Palestinian believed to have been involved in
    the raid and were hunting others. There was no immediate claim
    of responsibility for the attack.

    Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sought a further delay on
    Sunday (April 28) to the start of a United Nations probe into
    Israel's devastating assault on a Palestinian refugee camp in
    Jenin, Israeli political sources said.

    As ministers debated the probe, political sources also
    said the cabinet approved a proposal by U.S. President George
    W. Bush that could lead to the lifting of Israel's siege of
    Palestinian President Yasser Arafat at his West Bank
    headquarters.

    The United Nations (U.N.) fact-finding team waited for
    the go-ahead to fly to Israel from Geneva, while the Israeli
    government continued its debate about the mission.

    Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the main
    stumbling block was whether the United Nations or Israel would
    set the Israeli witness list.

    Israeli political sources said Sharon would seek a further
    24-hour delay in the arrival of the team representing an
    organisation many Israelis view as hostile.

    The team was expected to arrive, a day later than planned,
    on Sunday (April 28).

    There was no immediate word from the United Nations
    whether it would accept another postponement.

    The U.N. fact-finding team, led by former Finnish
    President Martti Ahtisaari, has been beefed up by security
    advisers at Israel's request after Israeli officials
    complained its members had a political tilt and lacked
    military expertise.

    Israel wants the mission's mandate to be limited to events
    in Jenin and seeks immunity to prosecution for its soldiers.

    Palestinians say hundreds of civilians may have died in
    Jenin camp, many in homes flattened by tank fire and
    bulldozers, during a West Bank offensive Israel launched on
    March 29 after suicide attacks that killed scores of Israelis.

    Israel, which first accepted the U.N. mission and then
    expressed reservations about its composition and mandate, says
    48 people, mostly fighters, were killed in Jenin while it lost
    23 soldiers fighting what it calls a nest of terror.


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