Day 13

DAY 13: Eyewitness Testimony in Palestine...Reports from Jenin, Nablus, Mass Graves...

As the Israeli army has reoccupied Palestinian towns and cities in the West Bank they have imposed complete 24-hour curfews for days at a time.

Occasionally they lift the curfew to enable the civilian residents who are trapped in their houses without water, electricity, telephones or food, to buy provisions.

However, despite the lifting of the curfew at the "high military level", on the ground it would appear that leaving home is still fraught with danger for most Palestinians.

The day before yesterday when the Israelis lifted the curfew in the Bethlehem area, Yousef Iyad, 43 and his wife, Jameleh left their seven children at home in Deheishya refugee camp to make a brief trip to buy food. On the way Israeli soldiers opened fire on the car shattering the window and shooting out a tyre. Jamelah suffered wounds to her face, from the flying glass. Terrified they sought refuge in a house in the street. The curfew was re-imposed; the parents now are separated from their children including their two-month-old baby, who is breast-fed. This means that since yesterday he has not been fed - and is left in the care of his siblings and neighbours. The eldest, who is 18, is desperate to reunite the baby with his mother, and said, "if no one helps me I will have to break curfew to get him to my mother - he is crying and hungry."

This is not the first time Israeli soldiers have shot at people when the curfew was lifted. On April the second the Israeli soldiers in the downtown Ramallah opened fire on a 14-year-old Kindi Amin Qutamey, shooting him in the leg with live ammunition.

In another example, on the 8th of April, a newly married man, in his early 20s, was driving home in the Ramallah

neighbourhood, Im As-Shariyet, when the curfew was re-imposed; a sniper positioned in the Arab Nation College shot him with four bullets - he died immediately from the shot to his head.

For more information contact The Palestine Monitor +972 (0)2 5834021 or +972 (0)2 5833510

The deputy governor of Jenin, Haider Rashid, this morning described how the Israeli soldiers in the Jenin United Nations refugee camp are bulldozing houses, "at first I thought they were doing it to make the roads wider for the tanks, but now I believe the army is doing this in order to cover its crime. When the soldiers finally leave from Jenin, the press, cameramen and

diplomats will want to come to see the terrible things the soldiers have done, but this atrocity will literally be covered up".

The situation in both Jenin city and refugee camp remains appalling with Israeli tanks and helicopters attacking and shelling the area, a 24 hour curfew, the rounding up of Palestinians and no water or electricity. It is estimated that 200 Palestinians have been killed in this massacre in Jenin, this cannot be confirmed as no one can access the area to collect the bodies or the injured.

According to Mr. Rashid, at least 3,000 people, mostly women and children have left the camp (home to 15,000 people). Im Alaa As-Sady, who was one of those who escaped the carnage in the camp, described how she had "no choice but to leave with my children. There was no water, and we ran out of bread days ago. Constantly there is shelling of the houses, and if you go outside, or near the windows, or on the roof, snipers can shoot at you. We fled to the city and are now in a house with forty other people? I do not know how we will manage as we are all here and have no food already. We cannot get out to buy some more because the curfew is not lifted here as we are in an area close to the camp. I don't know where my husband or other

In almost all of these cases, it is the third time that Israel has made these people homeless, the crimes committed against the

The city of Nablus and the Beit Ein Ma'a refugee camp are also coming under constant attack with heavy shelling. Israeli troops yesterday forced the civilians to evacuate the neighbourhood of El-Yasmeen. The mostly women, children and old men were then forced to spend the night in the grounds of a school. The wholesale destruction of the city continues, with the

destruction of houses, business, shops and factories, with the accompanied loss of life.

Medical teams across the West Bank remain unable to provide care to the sick and wounded. Approximately 2 million people remain, for the 14th day, under 24-hour curfew, the majority without water, electricity or telephones. Palestinians lives are at risk even obeying the curfew; Minal Ibrahiem Liftaweih was shot dead in her home in the Ein Mesbah neighbourhood of

Ramallah this morning, by a sniper on a near by building. In another incident an Armenian monk, Armen Sebanyian was shot in

Bethlehem in the Church of the nativity, seriously wounded. He remains in critical condition.

Yesterday we reported on the death of a Ramallah man shot dead by a sniper as he was on his way after the lifting of the curfew. There are also cases reported of prisoners who were arbitrarily detained or arrested, who were then shot dead on their way home after they had been released, again by snipers, (for more information see Palestine Monitors "Casualties of the

Palestinians call for the intervention of the international community to bring an immediate halt to this Israeli military aggression, and the immediate lifting of this inhumane curfew.

Please write or telephone your political representatives, your local Israeli embassies and Israeli government officials demanding they stop immediately these brutal highly militarized attacks on a civilian population, and as an interim step withdraw all Israeli troops from the newly re-occupied towns and cities.

For more information contact The Palestine Monitor +972 (0)2 5834021 or +972 (0)2 5833510 www.palestinemonitor.org

7:00pm: Extra-judicial Executions in Jenin refugee camp; bodies seen in the rubble 10 April 2002, LAW Reports from witnesses in Jenin refugee camp to LAW indicate that from those Palestinian fighters resisting the Israeli military assault on Jenin refugee camp, a number of those sought to surrender to Israeli forces and were summarily executed. It has been difficult to confirm exact numbers of those executed, due to the fact that Israeli forces prevent any of the residents of the refugee camp or any independent monitors from returning or entering the refugee camp. However, LAW has received the names of two of those fighters, who were apparently executed after their surrender: Ala' Sabagh and Mahmoud al- Hilou. Reports indicate that other fighters remaining within the refugee camp, who have stopped their resistance, and seek to surrender, are being summarily executed. Witnesses report that when leaving the refugee camp, they saw bodies of residents that appeared to be run over by military bulldozers and bodies within the rubble of homes and shelters that had been destroyed. They expressed their fears that they did not know whether all the bodies in the rubble were dead or injured persons. LAW understands that the majority of the residents from the camp, after being forcibly expelled by Israeli forces, earlier today, have still not been allowed to return. These refugees are now currently scattered throughout the area, surrounding the refugee camp. Various sources from the refugee camp, estimate that at least 30 percent of the total area of the camp, including homes and shelters, have been totally destroyed. LAW calls for an international protection force to protect civilians to be deployed immediately in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and for an international investigative body to be immediately despatched to investigate this apparent evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity, perpetrated by the Israeli forces, including in Jenin refugee camp. ____________________________ LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to preserving human rights through legal advocacy. LAW is affiliate to the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the Federation Internationale des Ligues de Droits de l'Homme (FIDH) and the World Organisation Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment, PO Box 20873, Jerusalem, tel. +972-2-5833530, fax. +972-2-5833317, email: law@lawsociety.org, web: www.lawsociety.org

Noon: Israel digs mass graves - covering up war crimes

April 10, 2002, LAW

This morning, April 10, LAW has managed to obtain the following information from Jenin refugee camp. Residents of the refugee camp report that they were first moved from the camp. Eyewitnesses stated that Israeli forces are now digging large holes inside Jenin refugee camp and in surrounding areas. They have stated their fears that these are mass graves, where the several killed (numbers still to be confirmed) in the refugee camp will be buried. Eyewitnesses saw Israeli forces putting

bodies inside the holes. The area is located in the middle of the camp, also known as Haret al-Hawarish.

LAW has sought assistance from the international humanitarian agencies to enter the area and document the current activities of Israeli forces and photograph evidence of how the dead were killed, but has been advised that it is currently too dangerous to enter the refugee camp to do so.

LAW believes that these current actions suggest an intention to hide evidence of Israeli war crimes committed in Jenin refugee camp.

They follow statements made by Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres in Ha'aretz, April 9, 2002, that a "massacre" has been carried out in the camps and statements made by Israeli army officers that "the soldiers are almost not advancing on foot. The bulldozers are simply 'shaving' the homes and causing terrible destruction. When the world sees the pictures of what we have done there, it will do us immense damage."

"However many wanted men we kill in the refugee camp, and however much of the terror infrastructure we expose and destroy there, there is still no justification for causing such great destruction."

Peter Hansen, director of UNRWA also confirmed on April 7, 2002, that "We are getting reports of pure horror - that helicopters are strafing residential areas, that systematic shelling by tanks has created hundreds of wounded, that bulldozers are razing refugee homes and that food and medicine will soon run out. In the name of human decency the Israeli military must allow our ambulances safe passage to help evacuate the wounded and deliver emergency supplies of medicine and food."

These statements confirm reports received from Jenin refugee camp earlier this week, reported by LAW in its press releases of April 8 and 9 and LAW's Weekly Round ups.

LAW's attorney Hanan Khatib has lodged a pre-petition with the Israeli State Attorney's office to stop these mass grave burials and allow access for LAW's legal team to investigate the circumstances of their deaths.

Yesterday evening, LAW received reports directly from Jenin and Nablus of an escalated military assault, including in Jenin refugee camp, bombardment from Apache helicopter gunships; F15 and F16 war planes shelling the old city of Nablus and Balata refugee camp; and further deployment of Israeli tanks.

LAW reaffirms that these military assaults targeting civilians throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including Jenin and Nablus amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. LAW condemns as well these ongoing attempts to prevent access for human rights monitors, journalists, and humanitarian agencies to these sites of mass killings to investigate and document evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

LAW urgently appeals again to member states to apply effective measures, including in the form of economic sanctions, to pressure Israel to accept an international protection presence, end its gross violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and genuinely commit to final peace negotiations.

LAW welcomes the recent moves by states to impose an arms embargo, including by the Government of Germany, but believes that stronger measures, in particular, economic sanctions and immediate deployment of an international protection force is vital for the protection of civilians.

LAW calls again on member states, including as High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, to comply with their obligations under article 146 by searching for, investigating and bringing to trial perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity, under universal jurisdiction and through a War Crimes Tribunal and calls for an end to all acts by member states aiding and abetting the perpetration of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including by ending supply of all arms used to perpetrate such crimes.

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