A testimony from Jenin
By May

April 11, 2002
 

MIFTAH

I am transcribing here the testimony that we heard on 10/04/2002 at 11:00PM on the phone from May, a resident of Jenin who has a view on the refugee camp from her house.

"The army came into Jenin on Tuesday night. On the second day, they started using Apache helicopters to bomb the camp, there were 9 helicopters, we sometimes would hear two missiles within a minute. The resistance was day and night, the resistants had prepared themselves and had collected weapons.

During 6 days the IDF was unable to enter the camp. People surrendered because there was no food, no water, no electrcity, the children were hungry and houses had been burnt. Tanks would shell the first floor of houses, and helicopter missiles the last floor, so the whole house would burn.

I could see everything from my house. People started leaving the camp on Monday, the second wave left on Tuesday and the third wave today. The last people who stayed were families who had sons in the resistance, and they finally left when the resistants asked them to when they had no more bullets. Each resistant who had no more bullets would drop his gun and dress in civilian clothes to join a group of people who were leaving.

On Monday, when the first wave of civilians left the camp, they were shot at. It was panic. They were grouped on Haifa street, which separates the camp from Jenin town. Women and children were separated from men, they were ordered to sit on the ground. There were about 150 men. They had to take off their clothes and shoes, and for those who migh have been fighters, they had to stand naked and were tied up by their feet in groups of 5.

They were taken in a village called Romani and three other villages. We think that the total is about 1200 prisonners. The chief of the resistance swears on the Quran that there have been at least 50 Israeli soldiers killed, among them soldiers from the SLA. The curfew was lifted on Sunday, and when people went out the soldiers would shoot at the ground in front of them, so people couldn't go out to buy any supplies. Right now, I don't have water, electricity and food, the neighbours gave us some bread today. Firefighters distributed food yesterday and today, but they haven't reached our area yet.

During the first four days, the IDF asked the resistants to surrender through loudspeakers, promising them that they wouldn't be hurt, the Palestinians would answer by shooting. Today, the last wave of people left the camp, men under 15 or over 60 were allowed to go to Jenin town, about 70 people came to our area. Some were barefoot, they were starving and thirsty. We collected food for them in the neighbourhood. They were exhausted. Suddently a woman remembered that she forgot her 12 year old daughter in the camp. Maybe the little girl left with other people.

A 70 year old man, whose son died recently, explained that he had been through the 1948 war and that this time was much worse. Before they were allowed to go to Jenin town, women were grouped in a room. A soldier started beating one of them, another soldier started crying, saying that women should not be beaten.

The other soldiers cursed him. Bulldozers are now still destroying houses. It seems that collaborators told the IDF to hit the houses of resistants, and when resistants would gather to eat, the place where they were would be bombed. The resistants who dressed as civilians were recognized by the soldiers. The soldiers are trying to hide what happened by asking people to bring corpses lying in the streets inside the houses, and are now bulldozing houses and burning them to hide the corpses under the rubble."