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Posted on 04/17/2002 7:09:26 PM PDT by Jethro Tull
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18 April 2002 02:35 GMT+1
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By Christine Hauser
JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli tanks fired heavy machineguns inside Jenin's refugee camp on Wednesday and the army warned residents combing the rubble of their homes that a curfew remained in force.
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It was not immediately clear what had prompted the tanks still in Jenin to open fire in the camp's smashed streets. The army told residents through megaphones that a curfew was still in force.
Earlier in the afternoon, hundreds of Palestinians had poured back into the refugee quarter from the town, many of them residents who had fled fierce fighting between the Israeli army and Palestinian militants that abated at the weekend.
Although a general curfew has prevailed for over a week, it appeared not to have been strictly applied in parts of the town and camp over the past three days, with many more people on the streets and even some local cars moving around.
Before the tanks began shooting, civilian medics had been using shards of metal as shovels to dig in the rubble that was once the camp's main square, uncovering the limb of a corpse.
Suddenly, heavy machinegun fire sounded in repeated bursts in the main street next to the square. A crowd of Palestinians who had gathered to watch the gruesome excavation scrambled down the mountain of rubble, fleeing into alleys in all directions.
The medics hurriedly covered up what they had found with boards and also fled.
Palestinians shut themselves inside a roofed parking area, watching as Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers roared past, the blue and white Israeli flag fluttering atop them.
Witnesses said earlier residents were returning to the camp in vehicles and on foot despite a curfew in a "closed military zone" still off limits to outsiders apart from some army-escorted relief crews.
Around 50 tanks had pulled out of Jenin by late afternoon, leaving via two checkpoints, but some tanks remained hunkered down at vantage points to the northwest, witnesses reported.
The Israeli army had no immediate comment. It was not clear if troops were withdrawing from the northern West Bank town or just redeploying or rotating, but a spokesman confirmed the area remained a closed military zone.
POWELL'S CEASE-FIRE BID FAILS
Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) left the region on Wednesday without achieving an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire or a complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank that might set the stage for renewed peace talks after 18 months of violence.
Sharon said Monday that troops would leave Jenin in a couple of days, and the West Bank's largest city Nablus, which also saw heavy fighting, within a week, but would remain nearby.
Palestinians say hundreds among the camp's 13,000 civilians were "massacred" by the army in its incursion, part of a sweep into West Bank towns in a declared crackdown on Palestinian militants behind suicide bombings in Israel.
The Israeli government has denied the massacre allegations, saying the majority of Palestinian casualties in Jenin were militants who used houses in the camp as cover to ambush Israeli forces, and booby-trapped many of the buildings.
By army count, at least a dozen decomposing bodies remained uncollected late Wednesday amid crumpled masonry or in buildings where they fell during the Israeli incursion. Palestinians say many more lie under mountains of rubble around the main square. The army concedes more bodies may be there.
Haider Eshed, Jenin's acting Palestinian governor, said local ambulances or residents retrieved 15 bodies Wednesday with army permission and brought them to the main hospital.
That brought to about 30 the number of corpses removed over the past two weeks, most after the Palestinian Red Crescent gained limited access to the camp under Israeli army escort.
Fifteen of the bodies have been buried temporarily in the garden of the hospital.
A large swathe of the camp's crude concrete housing and lanes was wrecked or damaged by the fighting. Its central square resembles an earthquake (news - web sites) zone after being shelled and bulldozed.
It is not believable that only a few people have been killed, given the reports we have that a large number of people were inside three and four-storey buildings when they were demolished."
It sure as hell ain't in this article.
Anyone who knows how to conduct an autopsy should be able to tell what order the shots were fired in. If the fatal blow was to the back then wouldn't the blood flow from the foot wound be less than if he were shot in the foot while alive? A competent Medical examiner should be able to tell the difference.
As for the bona fides of the doctor, he works for "Amnesty International." Now, THERE's an unbiased, legitimate, trustworthy source for you.
As for claims of mass killings, the doctor is just quoting what Palestinians have told him. No evidence. And one reporter, for a less bigoted newspaper, took the time to look in the refrigerated truck that a Palestinian said he saw IDF soldiers "loading corpses into." The truck was loaded with fruits and vegetables for the IDF troops.
The deadline for this piece of tripe says, "Fresh Evidence of Jenin Atrocities." The only thing it is "fresh evidence" of is the blazing dishonesty of this British newspaper. That "evidence" is so fresh and steaming that it hasn't even attracted flies yet.
Congressman Billybob
Click here to fight Campaign Finance "Reform/".
Click here for next column: "Why Are We Here?" - the Prequel.
Palestinians ... have said the Israeli army committed many atrocities.
Witnesses have described people being shot as they surrendered; houses being bulldozed with people inside; the use of human shields; the burial of 32 bodies in a trench, and one case of Israeli soldiers turning on the household gas supply before tossing a stun grenade into a room full of people.
What kind of "evidence" is this? It's nothing but "hearsay" and coming from a gang of known pathological liars.
In other words, utterly worthless.
The autopsy on the 38-year-old Palestinian revealed that "he was either shot in the foot, and then in the back, or shot in the back first – receiving a fatal wound – and his corpse was for some reason shot in the foot," he said. "Whichever order the shots occurred in, it was highly suspicious".
So this good doctor is an expert on war battle injuries? I don't think so! And "whichever order the shots occured in"? LOL, yeah doc, it was suspicous to you, because it was a bullet wound . Newsflash. In lawful combat, bullets are fired at the enemy, whether they are running to you, away from you, or sideways.
Derrick Pounder, professor of forensic medicine at Dundee University, who is working with Amnesty International, visited the ruined camp and said: "Claims that a large number of civilians died and are under the rubble are highly credible.It is not believable that only a few people have been killed, given the reports we have that a large number of people were inside three and four-storey buildings when they were demolished."
THIS is NEWSor HARD EVIDENCE OF ATROCITIES??? The threshold of believeablility for this paper when it comes to slamming Jews is quite low...how quaint.
Go Israel! Smoke out the terrorist scum that want you and then me, my family and friends blown to bits! If a few innocents die, well, hell, that's war. I have zip sympathy for these fanatical animals who choose leaders like Arafat and idolize terrorists like Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Hitler!!!
Yeah, those terrorists are really "freedom fighters." Sharon and the IDF are the real terrorists. Personally, I don't think that Sharon and Israel have been hard enough on barbaric animals who celebrate, glorify and advocate terrorism!!! Arabs who support Arafat, Bin Laden and Hussein are full of lies. They are full of taquiyyah-talk. They are not to be trusted and have no honor--even among their own kind!!!
Right. Over two dozen terrorists from Jenin have blown up Israeli civilians recently...there are bomb factories in the middle of town...and we can't imagine what the Israelis "might be up to" there.
Give me a major break.
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