arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: Israeli Defence Force war crimes must be investigated
by Tom Thursday, Nov. 07, 2002 at 11:57 PM
Jerusalem -- at the launch of a report into the actions of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in Jenin and Nablus in March and April 2002, Amnesty International said today that there is clear evidence that some of the acts committed by the IDF during Operation Defensive Shield were war crimes.
The report,
Israel has the right to take measures to prevent unlawful violence,
but in doing so they must not violate international law. In Jenin
and Nablus, the IDF blocked access for days to ambulances, humanitarian
aid and the outside world while the dead and wounded lay in streets
or houses. In Jenin a whole residential quarter of the refugee
camp was demolished leaving 4,000 people homeless.
"Up to now the Israeli authorities have failed in their responsibility
to bring to justice the perpetrators of serious human rights violations.
War crimes are among the most serious crimes under international
law, and represent offences against humanity as a whole. Bringing
the perpetrators of these crimes to justice is therefore the concern
and the responsibility of the international community. All states
who are parties to the Geneva Conventions must search for those
alleged to have committed grave breaches of the Conventions and
bring them to justice," said Amnesty International.
"There will be no peace or security in the region until human
rights are respected. All attempts to end human rights violations
and install a system of international protection in Israel and
the Occupied Territories, in particular by introducing monitors
with a clear human rights mandate, have been undermined by the
refusal of the government of Israel. This refusal has been supported
by the USA."
"It is imperative that the international community stop being
an ineffective witness of the grave violations that take place
in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Meaningful, urgent and
appropriate action is long overdue," Amnesty International
concluded.
Israel and the Occupied Territories Shielded from Scrutiny
: IDF violations in Jenin and Nablus details the following
violations:
Unlawful killings
"My family was at home on Friday 5 April. It was about
3 or 3.15 in the afternoon. We heard the knocking and calling
for us to open the door. My sister 'Afaf said 'Just a moment'.
She said this right away.... When she reached the door, she had
just put her hand out to touch the handle of the door and it exploded.
The door exploded in on her and the right side of her face was
blown off.... I think she must have died instantly. We started
shouting. The soldiers were just outside that door. The IDF began
to shoot at the walls as if to try and scare us. We yelled at
them to get an ambulance but they did not answer us."
"I looked and saw one of the large bulldozers coming from
the west side bulldozing the al-Shu'bi family house and I saw
the house tilt over. Without even thinking, I yelled to the soldier
in the bulldozer, 'Let the residents leave the house.' At this
point the soldier came out of the bulldozer, took his weapon and
started to fire in my direction." Ten members of the
Shu'bi family were buried under their house in Nablus for six
days, only two survived.
These cases are just two of many documented by Amnesty International
in Jenin and Nablus where people were killed or injured in circumstances
suggesting that they were unlawfully killed. Palestinians not
involved in fighting were killed as a result of disproportionate
use of force and the failure of the IDF to take adequate measures
to protect those not involved in the fighting.
In Jenin refugee camp and Jenin city, more than half of the 54
Palestinians who died as a result of the incursion between 3 and
17 April, appear not to have been involved in fighting. Among
those killed were seven women, four children and six men aged
over 55. Six had been crushed in houses. In Nablus, at least 80
Palestinians were killed by the IDF between 29 March and 22 April.
Among the victims were seven women and nine children.
None of these killings has been impartially and thoroughly investigated,
even where there have been strong reasons to believe they were
unlawful. This failure on the part of the Israeli authorities
has helped created a climate where some members of the IDF, aware
that no action will be taken against them, continue to carry out
unlawful killings.
The use of Palestinians for military operations or as "human
shields"
"We entered my neighbour's house. The soldiers began
to drill a hole in the wall. I went with three soldiers and the
dog through the wall. The soldier kept the gun positioned at my
head. This happened about six or seven times. In each case, when
we passed from building to building the soldiers always kept me
in front of them. At the last place I pulled the door back and
just as I was walking out I heard shooting. The soldiers pulled
me back from the alley and began to return fire. I was one metre
behind them".
In both Jenin and Nablus, the IDF systematically compelled Palestinians
to take part in military operations or to act as "human shields".
Women as well as men were used in this way. Typically, the IDF
would hold a Palestinian for several days and compel them to search
property in the camp, thus putting them at serious risk of injury.
Torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in arbitrary
detention
" They started to beat us on the body and chest with
rifle butts.....We were all gathered there in our underwear. It
was cold. When we asked for blankets, we were beaten. We were
not given any water."
In Jenin, men who had been rounded up and separated from women,
children and men aged over 55 were stripped to their underwear,
blindfolded and handcuffed. Many said they were beaten. One detainee
died as a result of beatings.
In Nablus a similar pattern of torture and ill-treatment of people
detained in mass round-ups was recorded. Immediately after arrest,
detainees were taken to Shomron temporary detention centre. Those
interviewed said that beatings took place during and after the
arrests. The centre was overcrowded and detainees were given insufficient
water, little food and were sometimes denied access to toilet
facilities.
Blocking medical and humanitarian relief
'Atiya Hassan Abu Irmaila, 44 , was shot in the head by
the IDF while in his home on 5 April. Desperate attempts by his
family to call an ambulance failed. The family was even unable
to leave their home to tell relatives that he had died. 'Atiya
Hassan Abu Irmaila's body remained in the house for seven days.
Suna Hafez Sabreh, 35, was shot and seriously injured on 7 April
while closing the door to her house. The family called an ambulance,
but it failed to reach them, on at least one occasion because
it had come under fire. An ambulance finally arrived two days
later, after Suna Hafez Sabreh's condition had seriously deteriorated.
She has since had five operations.
In both Jenin and Nablus, the IDF denied medical and humanitarian
relief organizations access to the affected areas even after the
fighting had stopped.
The IDF blocked medical aid for days; in addition they shot at
ambulances or fired warning shots around them. Ambulance drivers
were harassed or arrested. Meanwhile, the wounded lay for hours
untended or were treated in homes, and the dead remained in the
street or in houses for days. In several cases, people reportedly
died in circumstances where lack of access to medical care may
have caused or hastened their death.
Demolition of houses and property
"There is total devastation, no whole standing house,
as though someone has bulldozed a whole community. If anyone was
in a house they could not have survived..... There is nothing
but rubble and people walking around looking dazed. There is a
smell of death under the rubble."
These are the words of an Amnesty International delegate who entered
Jenin refugee camp minutes after the IDF lifted the blockade on
17 April 2002. IDF forces that entered Jenin and Nablus brought
tanks or bulldozers through roads, often stripping off the front
of houses. In Hawashin and neighbouring areas of Jenin refugee
camp 169 houses with 374 apartment units were bulldozed, mostly
after the fighting had ceased. As a result more than 4,000 people
were left homeless.
In both Jenin and in Nablus there were instances when the IDF
bulldozed houses while residents were still inside. IDF soldiers
either gave inadequate warnings or no warnings before houses were
demolished and subsequently failed to take measures to rescue
those trapped in the rubble and prevented others from searching
for them. Amnesty International documented three such incidents
leading to the deaths of 10 people. Six others on the hospital
lists of those killed in Jenin were recorded as being crushed
by rubble.
The full report is available online at:
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/recent/MDE151432002!Open
The executive summary is available at:
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/recent/MDE151492002!Open
web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE151542002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\ISRAEL/OC...