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CNN Live Today

Jenin Survivors Return to Devastated Camp

Aired April 19, 2002 - 13:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In Jenin, there is rubble where buildings used to stand. The smell of death lingers in the air and many survivors are now homeless. Many survivors are now returning to devastation. CNN's Christiane Amanpour has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is early morning after Israeli tanks and troops finally pull out of Jenin. A woman and her child clutching his stuffed toy are among the stunned residents of the refugee camp coming back to see just what they survived. All over this scene of massive destruction, people say to each other, thank god that you are still alive.

In the piles of pulverized concrete and twisted metal, women and old men scrabble with bear hands in search of belongings. And where there is a stench, they search for anyone who might be buried.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are feeling the smell.

AMANPOUR: It's a futile effort. With just a plank of wood, they cannot winch away the concrete slabs.

"If they thought we were human, they wouldn't have done that to us." says this old man, "and now, no one is helping us." Indeed, here they wonder why they are not yet getting the kind of emergency international aid they have seen rushed to earthquake victims all over the world. The UN says Israel bears some responsibility for launching a search and rescue operation.

There is a strong smell of rotting bodies under many of the piles in this area of devastation. But people may never know the true extent of their casualties unless they get in proper heavy lifting equipment to move the rubble.

The war of the body count is almost as fierce as the fighting it self; 23 Israeli soldiers and still unknown number of Palestinians. Israeli press reconstruction suggests the army attacked from the edge of the camp, with tank and machine gunfire, trying to get its infantry in. But it failed because of armed resistance, and then started attacking houses with Apache helicopters and tanks until Palestinian fighters were forced deeper and deeper into the camp, here where the final destruction took place. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last night the President Bush says that Ariel Sharon, the prime minister of Israel, is the peace man. But you can see the action of the peace man. Hundreds of houses were destroyed.

AMANPOUR: Some residents say they never got any warning, but others, like Saeed (ph), his wife and four children, say they were told to get out. "We were here in our house for a week," he says, "until they called us on loud speaker saying they were going to strike with F-16s."

Israeli press reports carry accounts by some of their soldiers. One called this Vietnam. Others admit they used Palestinian camp residents as human shields as they went house to house searching forearmed militants and booby traps. The Israeli army insists the use of human shields, which violated the rules of war, is not their policy. With the battle for Jenin over now, all that's left for the residents who are left, is to report their missing and wonder where they are going to live.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN, at the Jenin refugee camp.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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