WAR CRIMES: Prisoners Strapped to Tanks; Tanks Destroy Occupied Homes and Murder Prisoners

From: http://jerusalem.indymedia.org/news/2002/04/6309.php
Israel Committing An Ongoing Massacre in Jenin
by AL-AWDA-News • Saturday April 06, 2002 at 11:56 AM


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.

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