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American Morning

What Really Took Place at Palestinian Refugee Camp in Jenin

Aired April 16, 2002 - 09:02   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: "Up Front" at this hour, what really took place at the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin. Well for days the Israeli and Palestinian officials have disputed the extent of the devastation in the besieged camp. Palestinian say as many as 500 were killed there. The Israelis say now the number was in the dozen. Now making matters more difficult, the Israeli army has strictly limited access by journalist. And CNN Rula Amin has been able to get into the camp unescorted and she joins us now from near Jenin with the details. Good morning, Rula.

RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

As you have mentioned, today we were able, after seven days of trying, to get inside the camp. And although it's still very difficult, although we were into the camp to verify all the conflicting reports we have been getting from the Israelis and from the Palestinians what we saw with our own eyes today does confirm devastation.

We have been into different alleys, different streets in that camp. There were many houses that have been knocked down. At one point, we went into this neighborhood and every house in that neighborhood had been either knocked down, bulldozed or had been badly, badly damaged.

Now we got in there, as the people, the residents of the camp also were coming in, sneaking in behind the army - Israeli army tanks and APC's. They were trying to check out their damages, their houses and some of them have lost touch with some of their family members, sons, daughters, parents and they were coming to look for them.

It was a very devastating scene. At one point, we went inside a house and there in front of us there were five bodies. Some were covered with blankets. Others did not. The bodies were black. There were flies flying over them. It was obvious the people had been dead for days. The bodies had started to decompose. The smell was so strong most of the people who were getting inside there had something to cover their faces and their noses. They didn't want to smell it.

One journalist actually fainted after he smelled that very, very smell of death - Paula.

ZAHN: And if you could, Rula, put into perspective these conflicting numbers about the number of fatalities here. The numbers are all over the map.

AMIN: Well it's very hard for us to tell how many have died. The Palestinians are saying 500. The Israelis are saying dozens. The Palestinian are saying most of them were civilians. The Israelis are saying most of them were fighters, Palestinian gunmen. And that it was a fierce battle and of course the death toll is going to be high.

No, but apart from the numbers, we also hear conflicting reports on what happened. The Palestinians are charging war crimes. They're saying the Israelis have execute the people, shot at them after they had surrendered. They're saying that Israelis wouldn't allow ambulances in. Medical teams were not allowed to help the wounded. And that's why the death toll had been high because the wounded bled to death.

The Israelis are saying it was a fierce battle. It was not safe to allow the Red Cross and journalist in. That it was too dangerous and there were booby traps that they were concerned about - Paula.

ZAHN: And that's certainly was bored (ph) out with the death of all of those Israeli soldiers, right?

AMIN: Yes, there was a high toll of Israelis. They lost 23 soldiers in Jenin refugee camp. Now considering the number of soldiers lost throughout this intifada (ph), this was a very high number in one camp, in a space of like one week. And Israelis are saying the Palestinian gunmen or the Palestinian fighters, whatever you want to call them, the Israelis call them terrorists, had put up a very strong fight over there and that there were suicide bombers. They had explosives in every alley and that's actually caused some of the deaths among the Palestinians.

As I said, it's going to be very, very hard for everybody to confirm exactly what happened in that camp. Both sides are very much have very strong convictions in what happened. That's the way they're acting. Palestinians are calling it a massacre. They want Colin Powell to pay attention to this place. They say how come he's being very sympathetic to the Israeli suffering but not coming to Jenin and having a look at what happened.

Today, when we were going around the camp, the residents were very eager to get us inside. They were showing us from their own homes, through the windows, they were trying to point to us the way. They wanted us to come inside the houses and to see what Israeli did to them as they tried to put it for us - Paula.

ZAHN: All right. We are going to leave that update there for this hour. Rula Amin thank you very much for taking us inside Jenin.

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