Additional and updated information: (source UN press release SG2077)
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The report covers a period running from approximately the beginning of March to 7 May 2002. It sets out the context and background of the situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. It also describes the security, humanitarian and human rights responsibilities of both parties. It briefly charts the rising violence since September 2000, which had, by 7 May 2002, caused the deaths of 441 Israelis and 1,539 Palestinians.
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Conduct of IDF during Incursions
The report refers to allegations from the Palestinian Authority and human rights organizations that, in the course of its operations, the IDF engaged in unlawful killings, the use of human shields, disproportionate use of force, arbitrary arrests and torture, and denial of medical treatment and access. Among the examples and descriptions given in the report are the following:
-- Death toll: Four hundred ninety-seven Palestinians were killed and 1,447 wounded in the course of the IDF reoccupation of Palestinian areas from 1 March through 7 May 2002 and in the immediate aftermath. Most accounts estimate that between 70 and 80 Palestinians, including approximately 50 civilians, were killed in Nablus. The IDF lost four soldiers there. In Jenin camp, by the time of the IDF?s withdrawal and the lifting of the curfew on 18 April, at least
52 Palestinians, of whom up to half may have been civilians, and 23 Israeli soldiers were dead. Allegations by Palestinian Authority officials in mid-April that 500 or more persons were killed in Jenin camp were not substantiated by the evidence that subsequently emerged.
-- Arbitrary arrests and detention: By 6 May, an alleged 7,000 Palestinians had been arrested under Operation Defensive Shield, many of them held for long periods with little or no outside contact. In many instances, the IDF followed a pattern of using loudspeakers to summon males between the ages of 15 and 45. According to human rights reports, significant numbers of the men arrested were blindfolded and handcuffed, not allowed to use a lavatory, and deprived of food or blankets during their first day in detention.
-- Human shields: There were numerous reports of the IDF compelling Palestinian civilians to accompany them during house searches, check suspicious subjects, stand in the line of fire, and in other ways protect soldiers from danger. Witnesses claim that this was done in the Jenin camp and other Palestinian cities. The Government of Israel has denied that its military personnel systematically engaged in this practice, but on 5 May issued ?an unequivocal order ... that forces in the field are absolutely forbidden to use civilians as a means of ?living shield??.
-- Disproportionate and indiscriminate destruction: Operation Defensive Shield resulted in the widespread destruction of Palestinian private and public property. The IDF is reported to have used bulldozers, tank shelling and rocket firing, at times from helicopters, in populated areas. The report points to the fact that over 2,800 refugee housing units were damaged and 878 homes were demolished or destroyed during the period covered, leaving more than 17,000 people homeless or in need of shelter rehabilitation. Nablus was especially hard hit in terms of physical destruction, notably in its Old City, which contained many buildings of cultural, religious and historic significance.
-- Destruction of Palestinian Authority civilian property: United Nations agencies and other international agencies, when allowed into Ramallah and other Palestinian cities, documented extensive physical damage to Palestinian Authority civilian property. That damage included the destruction of office equipment, such as computers and photocopying machines, that did not appear to be related to military objectives. While denying that such destruction was systematic, the IDF has admitted that its personnel engaged in some acts of vandalism, and is carrying out some related prosecutions.
-- Curfews and closures: Round-the-clock curfews were imposed in cities, refugee camps, towns and villages, affecting an estimated 1 million people. Two hundred twenty thousand urban residents lived under curfew regimes for over a week, without vital supplies and access to first aid. In Nablus, for example, the IDF imposed a curfew on 3 April and completely lifted it only on 22 April.
-- Denial of humanitarian access: During and immediately after the incursions, the report finds that Palestinian civilians suffered from prolonged delays in medical attention for the wounded and sick. In Jenin, especially, from 11-15 April, United Nations and other humanitarian agencies petitioned and negotiated with the IDF for access to the camp, and made many attempts to send in convoys, to no avail. Many of the reports of human rights groups contain accounts of wounded civilians waiting days to reach medical assistance, and being refused medical treatment by IDF soldiers. In some cases, people died as a result of these delays.
-- Attacks on ambulances: The report cites three instances where Israeli forces attacked ambulances. On 4 March (before the Jenin incursion), the head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society Emergency Medical Service in Jenin was killed by a shell fired from an Israeli tank while he was travelling in a clearly marked ambulance. On 7 March, an employee of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was shot and killed while riding in an UNRWA ambulance near Tulkarm in the West Bank. And on 8 April, an UNRWA ambulance was fired on as it tried to reach a wounded man in Jenin. The Government of Israel has asserted that ambulances were used to transport terrorists and their weapons.
Israeli Death Toll during period 1 March ? 7 May
According to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the IDF lost 30 soldiers during Operation Defensive Shield. Israel also endured approximately 16 terrorist bombings, the large majority of which were suicide attacks, between the beginning of March and 7 May. More than 100 persons were killed and scores more wounded in those attacks.
Overall Impact
The civilian population in the occupied Palestinian territory continues to suffer severe hardships, many of which have sharply intensified since the events covered in the report. There has been a near-complete cessation of all productive activity in the main West Bank centres of manufacturing, construction, commerce and private and public services, exacerbating the severe decline in living standards over the last 18 months. The United Nations does not have a mandate to monitor and report on conditions in Israel, as it does in the occupied Palestinian territory, and, therefore, does not have detailed information about the broader impact on Israel?s society and economy. But it is clear that during this period the Israeli people, too, have experienced great suffering, as a result of terrorism, and that Israel?s economy has been badly damaged.
In conclusion, the report stresses that a full and comprehensive account of the events in Jenin and other Palestinian cities could not be given without the full cooperation of both parties and a visit to the area. However, the Secretary-General expresses his confidence that ?the picture painted in this report is a fair representation of a complex reality?, as well as his belief that the events described show how urgent it is that the parties return to the peace process.
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