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.
Amnest International: http://www.amnesty.org
Please also read: "Israelis fear war crimes arrests", by Chris McGreal in Jerusalem, Tuesday November 12, 2002, The Guardian;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,838160,00.html
"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.
Amnest International: http://www.amnesty.org
Please also read: "Israelis fear war crimes arrests", by Chris McGreal in Jerusalem, Tuesday November 12, 2002, The Guardian;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,838160,00.html