Date

DAY 9: Eyewitness Testimony of Israel's Aggression...Intl's Attempt to Reach Manger Square ...check back for updates...

A group of 25 foreign peace activists are making their way to Manger Square in Bethlehem carrying signs highlighting sections of the Fourth Geneva Conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Right that are being blatantly violated by the Israeli government and military. These include the right to for the wounded to receive medical attention and for pregnant women to be tended to.

For over a week the Israeli army has been preventing the ambulances of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society from operating, by stopping ambulances and detaining, harrassing, beating and arresting medical workers. In many areas of besieged Palestine there are wounded and dead Palestinians that medical workers have been denied access to. Reports from Nablus are that many people have been buried alive under the rubble of their homes that have been destroyed by Israeli tank and helicopter fire. The internationals are hoping that they will be able to gain access to Manger Square and the Church of the Nativity to evacuate the dead and the wounded. They are walking in front of an ambulance to provide an unarmed human shield to ambulances that have been shot at.

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20 internationals from the solidarity groups marched towards the church of nativity in an attempt to evacuate the injured people from inside the church and to provide food supplies to the people besieged inside. Israeli tanks stopped the group and fired few bullets over their heads. the group tried to negotiate with soldiers to let them do their humanitarian mission. Soldiers did not allow them in claiming that "there are no injured people in!!" and that they have "enough food!!". after few attempts to pass through, the international solidarity group went back to Beit Jala hospital and are currently heading back to their homes inside the refugee camps.

Internationals attempt to March and Accompany a Red Crescent Ambulance to Church of Nativity, 4/6/02

6:00pm: Dreadful Humanitarian Situation, Systematic Bulldozing, IDF Massacres Civilians

April 06, 2002, www.jerusalem.indymedia.org

Yesterday at Al Razi hospital in Jenin, doctors and medics watched on helplessly as 28-year-old Nidal Al Haj bled to death inside the hospital yard. Dr. Ali Jabareen from the hospital explained how;the medics waited for a long time, but they couldn't get to him because of the shelling;. Hospitals report a shortage of oxygen and other medical supplies. Our sources in Jenin report the a dreadful humanitarian situation. The Israeli army has attacked continuously throughout the night, the refugee camp and the city. Apache helicopters have attacked and seriously damaged around 50 houses in the western side of the camp, 20 people are reported injured, bleeding in the street. Reports from the inhabitants are that there are 15 dead bodies in different locations, but again ambulances came under attack when trying to gain access to these bodies; this time with ammunition from the helicopters.

The latest news from Jenin is that the Israel army is systematically bulldozing houses in the refugee camp, which is home to some 15,000 Palestinians in an area of one kilometre squared. This is happening at the same time they are dropping tear gas from helicopters on the camp.

For two days the camp has resisted the Israeli invasion so now the nature of the invasion has changed. In an unprecedented breach of human rights, Israeli occupation soldiers announced in the afternoon that they would cease their fire in order to allow the women and elderly to get water only to arrest them and use them as human shields later on.
Since the residents have had no water for days, a number of women and elderly men came out of their homes. However, as they reached the camp's entrance, where Israeli tanks and personnel carriers are, they were all detained. Shortly after that, residents reported hearing the Israeli forces calling out on the microphone to the resistance fighters and security officers to surrender in order to save the lives of the detained civilians.

The detainees were seen strapped to the tanks and personnel carriers, which resumed their bombardment campaign shortly after that call for surrender.. Strikingly, the Israeli officer previously heading the Jenin reoccupation offensive was reprimanded and removed from his duty after having failed to take over the camp in the past four days. Currently, Shaul Mofaz, Israel's Chief of Staff, heads the brutal operation personally. Palestinian officials have thus held him directly responsible for the atrocities taking place in the Jenin refugee camp.
Letters from the Massacre in Jenin.

THE OCCUPATION FORCES ARE BULLDOZING HOMES WITH THE INHABITANTS INSIDE.

Flashpoints: Eyewitness to all out assault on crowded Jenin Camp

We talked to a family in Jenin Camp.
They are in their home with five children. All day they have been hearing bombs all around. Tens of houses have been destroyed by the shelling. Many died inside. There are people bleeding on the streets, some are children. Red Cross is unable to do anything. The camp is surrounded and under heavy indiscriminate fire. It's a massacre. Several phone calls have arrived at the Jenin hospital. People are calling for help. The doctors said that most of the people calling say: "help us, we are going to die, please help us". Several people whose houses have been bombed are running around the street carrying white flags and with no where to go.

8:45pm: Israel Committing An Ongoing Massacre in Jenin Thirty-Three Palestinians Murdered in Less than Twelve Hours 6 April 2002, Palestine Media Center - PMC, http://www.palestine-pmc.com The Palestine Red Crescent Society confirmed today that Israeli occupation forces have killed at least thirty Palestinian civilians in Jenin's refugee camp today. Eyewitnesses inside the camp confirm that Israeli bulldozers have leveled the refugee camp's front row homes while the families were still inside. While the confirmed thirty victims were killed in one of the camp's street, the total number of casualties in the camp is estimated to be at least 100. Many victims are buried under the rubble while scores others have been torn to pieces by the exploding tank shells; dozens others have bled to death inside their homes and in front of their traumatized family members. Six Palestinians were confirmed killed in the camp during the early hours of the morning and identified. The rest of the victims remain unidentified while the number of injuries has been impossible to confirm, but is feared to be in the hundreds. Since the early hours of the morning, Israeli Apache helicopters and tanks have been bombarding the densely populated refugee camp, where at least 150,00 people reside in an area that barely reaches 1 square kilometer. In fact, for the first time in its history of aggression, Israeli F-16 fighter jets have bombarded the Jenin refugee camp, in an offensive clearly meant to exact the maximum number of civilian casualties. Official sources estimate that in the past two days, the Jenin refugee camp has been bombarded with more missiles and tank shells than all those Israeli occupation forces have used against Palestinian targets in the past year and a half. Israeli occupation forces continue to adamantly refuse to allow any ambulance from reaching the refugee camp, even to collect the bodies. Two days ago, Israeli bulldozers destroyed a make-shift mass grave that the camp 's residents had made to bury their loved ones during the last Israeli invasion in February. The horrific scene resulting from the destruction was that of bodies removed from their graves and strewn across the street.

Eyewitness accounts also confirm that Israeli tanks patrolling the street have crushed a number of bodies that medical crews have been unable to collect. In a telephone interview with Al-Jazeera television, Umm Jihad, a camp resident, described the desperate situation; "The shelling has not stopped. We are all cornered in our homes, unable to sleep, move, or help those who are pleading for help as they bleed in the camp's streets. The Israeli bulldozers are leveling homes over their residents' heads and without a prior warning. When we called health officials to ask for help, we were informed that the occupation soldiers confiscated the ambulances' keys in order to debilitate them. Our situation is one of indescribable suffering and desperation for no one is intervening to save our children, who are dying in front of our own helpless eyes".

In an unprecedented breach of human rights, Israeli occupation soldiers announced in the afternoon that they would cease their fire in order to allow the women and elderly to get water only to arrest them and use them as human shields later on. Since the residents have had no water for days, a number of women and elderly men came out of their homes. However, as they reached the camp's entrance, where Israeli tanks and personnel carriers are, they were all detained. Shortly after that, residents reported hearing the Israeli forces calling out on the microphone to the resistance fighters and security officers to surrender in order to save the lives of the detained civilians. The detainees were seen strapped to the tanks and personnel carriers, which resumed their bombardment campaign shortly after that call for surrender.. Strikingly, the Israeli officer previously heading the Jenin reoccupation offensive was reprimanded and removed from his duty after having failed to take over the camp in the past four days. Currently, Shaul Mofaz, Israel's Chief of Staff, heads the brutal operation personally.

Palestinian officials have thus held him directly responsible for the atrocities taking place in the Jenin refugee camp. Jenin's three humble hospitals have confirmed that since today, they have run out of fuel, needed to keep the electricity generators running after Israeli occupation forces plunged the city into total darkness four days ago. The hospitals have also run out of water. As always, times of war and unbounded devastation bring about the most extraordinary acts of courage and ingenuity. Reports from Jenin's Al-Razi Hospital confirm that a doctor was successful in conducting life saving brain surgery to Burhan Samir Burhan, who was critically injured in the head. Surprisingly, the doctor, who was not specialized in such complicated surgeries, concluded the operation successfully through the help of a specialized doctor in Ramallah's Public Hospital, who was on the phone with him throughout the operation! Since yesterday, the Palestinian leadership has warned repeatedly, through numerous appeals, of a possible second Sabra and Shatila massacre, only this time it would be in Jenin. "The Palestinian leadership urgently appeals to the international community and the Arab leaders to immediately intervene and help save the residents of the Jenin refugee camp for they have been the victims of a brutal war campaign, lead personally by Israel's Chief of Staff, Shaul Mofaz", read a leadership statement. It added, "We hold the international community responsible for delaying any intervention that could spare the refugee camp's residents from a sure massacre". So far, no international party has intervened to stop the ongoing massacre.

8:30pm: Field Hospitals Set Up, Oldest Mosque Leveled, Ambulances Shot, Injured Bleeding to Death

In Nablus, currently under fire, Medical Relief has set up six field hospitals; the situation in two of them is dire. One of them, a mosque in the old city, reports 50 people injured, three of those in critical condition, 15 in serious condition. Doctors in the mosque have to operate with minimal equipment, five corpses in the room in which they operate. Israeli snipers on the roofs of the surrounding buildings shoot at any one trying to get to or from the mosque. Apache helicopters regularly attack the region; missiles have already destroyed several houses belonging to the Al-Usta family in the old city. It is reported that there are three people lying wounded in the near by streets, but no one is able to bring them to the mosque – the ambulances are prevented from moving. Also in the old city three health workers report they were taken by Israeli soldiers and used as human shields as the soldiers went from house to house searching.

The same situation is true for the field hospital in the Askar refugee camp. Israeli apache helicopters have shot missiles leaving seven people injured, two of them critically. Four bodies are known to be in the streets, but an ambulance given permission from the Israeli military to collect them came under fire, and had the tyres shot out. At the time of writing, soldiers were still shooting at the ambulance, but UPMRC lost contact with them.

April 5th. Seven Israeli women entered the besieged city of Ramallah to assist in humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population. The activists marched through the empty streets of the city just hours before the temporary lift of the curfew. They were stopped twice by military forces. The women helped the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committies distribute basic food items to the local population who rushed to the center as soon as the curfew was lifted.

The women claim that they adimently oppose the Israeli government's war against the Palestinian people, and that their objective is to express solidarity with he Palestinians. The women also mention that they came to see for themselves what is happening on the Palestinian street and feel what the Palestinians are going through.

PRCS attempted to evacuate injured persons from Yasser Arafat Compound tonight. The coordination done via the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Israeli army appears to have been a set up for the Israeli army public relations and media campaign. The PRCS ambulances, dispatched to evacuate reported 3 injured persons, were met with

Israeli television crews as Israeli officers appeared pleasant and accommodating. However, soon after the cameras left, the crew and ambulances were striped and searched. Two medics crew were then ordered to first bring out the "body first", when crews protested that attention must be first given to the injured, the officers aggressively ordered two medics to bring out a body or else the mission would be cancelled. PRCS medics found only one seriously injured person inside the compound and carried to their ambulance. Israeli TV crews again filmed an army doctor checking the injured person. The ambulance was allowed to proceed, however it was stopped at the gate of the compound and the crew were told that the army will now arrest the injured person. The patient was transferred into an Israeli armoured personnel carrier. PRCS protests the cynical use of media and the arrest of the patient. This once again proves the double faced tactics of the army in which their Public Relations machine is attempting to portray a false image of an army permitting humanitarian missions to proceed, but in which the real intentions are malicious.

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