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CNN Live At Daybreak
Despite Human Rights Violations, Jenin No Massacre
Aired April 29, 2002 - 05:31 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: More now on another flash point in the Middle East. The Jenin refugee camp. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is trying to resolve an impasse with Israel over a fact-finding mission to Jenin.
In the meantime, our Sheila MacVicar has been to the camp, and she's learned more about the Israeli attack and the aftermath.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Slowly, the picture is becoming more clear. We know more about what is underneath the rubble, and we know more about what happened to the people of Jenin.
(on camera): Israel has denounced Palestinian claims of a massacre here as a monstrous lie, a blood libel, and, after days of gathering evidence in the camp, international human rights workers say they are now convinced there was no massacre here.
But, they say, there is a disturbing picture of human rights violations and abuses of international law that has emerged, and those abuses, they say, require thorough investigation.
(voice-over): After dozens of interviews, human rights workers like Peter Bouckaert believe they know with reasonable certainty how many people died here.
PETER BOUCKAERT, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: We have documented the cases of 52 people who died during the Israeli incursion into Jenin refugee camp. Twenty-one of those were civilians. That's nearly half. And many of those were children, women, and elderly people.
MACVICAR: Most of the civilians, they say, were killed by Israeli sniper fire, but there are cases where, based on Palestinian testimony, it is clear Israeli soldiers knew civilians were trapped.
Still buried beneath the rubble, the body of Jamal Fayed, 38 years old and handicapped all his life. They found his wheelchair. It hangs on the wall of a house nearby.
His sister and a neighbor who tried to help described how they had carried Jamal Fayed from the house, how Israeli soldiers told them to go back, how finally with the bulldozer working and the frantic women on the street, Israeli soldiers told them they could go and get him.
BASSIMA FAYED, VICTIM'S SISTER: They said we could go, so we went in. But the guy on the bulldozer didn't listen to the soldiers. The house started to fall apart when we were inside.
VICTIM'S NEIGHBOR: Half the ceiling had fallen. Jamal was hiding, scrunched like this, on the mattress. We tried moving some of the rugs on top of him, and the house started to come down completely. I told his sister better him than all five of us. The bulldozer didn't stop. Not for one minute. We just made it out.
MACVICAR: A spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces would not address the specific charge.
SHARON FEINGOLD, IDF SPOKESWOMAN: These people heard us over the loudspeakers, and you have to understand that for a bulldozer to crush a house, it takes about half an hour. People who weren't in the house, who weren't supposed to be in the house were -- had much time to get out.
MACVICAR: Jihad Hanoon took us to a window. Israel soldiers brought here, he says, and, with other Palestinians, blindfolded, has hands tied, they used him as a human shield.
JIHAD HANOON, CAMP RESIDENT: They brought us here around 3:00 p.m. They lined us up at the window. They started firing from behind us and over our shoulders. I was their protection. They fired from behind me, and, if anyone fired back, I would get it.
MACVICAR: Human rights workers say his story is consistent with the stories of others in the camp, and Israeli reservists have told similar stories to Israeli newspapers.
FEINGOLD: I deny that. It's foundless, baseless. It's something which we don't do and will never do. We will never use Palestinians -- or any other civilians -- as human shields.
MACVICAR: International law obliges states to take every possible precaution to limit the impact of war on civilians.
Israel says this was a fierce fight and its soldiers took all the care they could. Human rights workers say the evidence suggests otherwise. Two radically different versions of the same event.
Some numbers no one disputes: 140 homes destroyed, 200 more damaged, one-quarter of the camp's population made homeless, and the camp where 23 Israeli soldiers died.
Sheila MacVicar, CNN, Jenin refugee camp.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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