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Israeli
Occupation Forces are waging an unprecedented campaign to raze
the Jenin refugee camp. In one case, eyewitness reports testify
that more than 160 people have been transferred from one area
of the camp to the village of Kufr Dan outside Jenin where they
are being held without food, water, or medical supplies while
the offensive continues. Bulldozers rolled over areas where houses
had been destroyed creating easy access into these areas for the
Israeli military. Many of those rounded up were placed under arrest,
while the remainder have been abandoned away from their homes.
The
Israeli military has completely demolished one entire section
of the camp and is in the process of making a "sweep"
through the rest of the camp. Fighting between Israeli army soldiers
and armed Palestinians ceased when Palestinian resistance fighters
ran out of ammunition. According to further eyewitness reports,
unarmed men are now being rounded up within the camp and taken
for summary execution. In one specific instance, a citizen of
Jenin phoned a human rights field worker describing how Israeli
soldiers broke into the homes of Palestinian civilians rounding
up 150 of them and killing two men Waddah Fathi ash-Shalabi, 35
and Abdul Karim Yusif Sa'adih, 38 in front of the group. In a
conflicting report witnesses said that soldiers ordered five men
to strip naked before executing them outside against the wall
of their home. The same eyewitnesses reported that people in the
Jenin camp were told in Hebrew that this would be another Sabra/Chatila
massacre.
Four
days ago helicopter gunships fired hellfire missiles into the
camp wounding a woman, Maryam Wishahi, and her 16 year old son,
Munir 'Issa Wishahi. The two phoned the Palestinian Medical Relief
Committees repeatedly for two days pleading for help. No emergency
medical teams were allowed access to the camp, however, and both
Maryam and her son died. Their bodies are still lying outside
their home in the camp. It should be emphasized that no medical
personnel or supplies have been allowed into the Jenin refugee
camp since this military offensive began. UN agencies and human
rights organizations have labeled this a "humanitarian catastrophe".
Human
rights organizations estimate that more than 100 people have so
far been murdered inside the camp. More stories are surfacing
as the week continues.
Al-Mezan
Center for Human Rights denounces the international community
for its silence and inaction in the face of these war crimes.
Every hour such silence and inaction continues more innocent lives
are destroyed. We therefore call upon the international community,
especially the High Contracting Parties to the 4th Geneva Convention
on the Protection of Civilians in Time of War (12 August 1949
– and of which Israel is a signatory), to intervene immediately
to halt this humanitarian disaster.
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