Posted on 04/12/2002 3:08:36 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
Palestinian officials charged Friday that Israeli forces killed hundreds or even thousands of Palestinians and buried the bodies in mass graves in northern Israel. Israeli officials questioned the death toll and said they were returning bodies to families after they were identified "in cooperation with the relevant sources."
Dr. Wael Qadan, Palestinian Red Crescent Society's chief of emergency, told United Press International that he believed more than 200 people were killed in Jenin, but exact figures were not known. Red Cross spokeswoman Aleksandra Matijevic told UPI the agency had no estimates or figures of its own.
Col. Gal Hirsh, head of operations at the Israeli armys command center, which includes the West Bank, rejected "rumors" that 500 to 600 Palestinians were killed.
'Lies'
"These are lies," he told reporters he told reporters in Jerusalem. Col. Hirsh noted that 23 Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in Jenin.
"We were fighting against armed terrorists. We asked the Palestinian civilians to evacuate their homes so they would not get hurt. Some chose not to. Most of the Palestinians that were killed were armed terrorists; many had explosive devices strapped to their bodies." The death toll mounted quickly in the two weeks since Israel, in retaliation for a series of suicide bombings, including one in which more than two dozen people were killed at a Seder, started a massive military campaign in Palestinian territories.
That offensive included a siege on the headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who is still barred from leaving his Ramallah compound, and actions in several West Bank towns and refugee camps, including Jenin. Israel said its forces were trying to destroy the Palestinian militants' infrastructure and the creation of a buffer zone, which involved the razing of dozens of buildings.
Israeli General: 'Hundreds Killed'
Israel Defense Forces Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey told Israeli Army Radio on Friday that "there were apparently hundreds of people killed in the Jenin refugee camp." The army quickly issued a "clarification" saying that Kitrey meant to say "casualties - those killed or wounded" rather than just the number of those killed.
But the Palestinians had already reacted to Kitrey's initial comments. Secretary-General of Palestinian Authority Cabinet Ahmed Abdel Rahman said, "They took hundreds of bodies to northern Israeli to hide their massacre they committed against our people.
"This massacre is not less than the massacres committed against the Palestinian people in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon."
He said thousands of Palestinians were either killed and buried in massive graveyards or smashed under houses destroyed in Jenin and Nablus.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said he did not believe thousands of people were killed. "It doesn't sound logical," he told UPI. "The Palestinians chose to take up arms and fight the Israel Defense Forces' soldiers, and in places where there are battles, people get killed."
'Propaganda'
Hirsh dismissed claims that Israel was burying Palestinians in mass graves as "Palestinian propaganda."
"We call upon the Red Cross organization and the Red Crescent organization to assist in identification of the Palestinian bodies and to conduct a proper burial service."
Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat called for an inquiry to investigate the killing of hundreds of Palestinians in Jenin and Nablus. However, Israel refused to join the call and said Palestinians were killed in fighting, not massacred by Israeli soldiers.
This is the line that both Brokejaw and Blather ran with last night also. I am so sick of seeing the funerals of the murdering Pallies on tv and no word of the innocent Israelis that have been murdered.
Screw them.
Shhhh.... Israel has nukes. Yugoslavia had none. Humanitarian Bombers hardly got guts to go against nukes. Israel shall show some of them loaded on the planes and ready to go on TV - and keep doing what it has to do to fight terrorists.
Only Hundreds??? Dang it!!! Not enough!!! I hope Israel adds a few zeros to that! Delouse the place, send the maggots where they belong! Under ground!
We should give every palestinian a bomb and have them all blow themselves up at the same time so that only Arafat is left.
If they really wanted to commit genocide, why didn't they accomplish this from the air, without risking the lives of Israeli soldiers in dangerous house-to-house operations (which got 13 Israelis killed)?
If they really wanted to commit genocide, don't you think they would have finished the job a long time ago?
If they really wanted to commit genocide, do you think there would be even a goat left alive in the West Bank?
I know who really want to commit genocide and it's not the Israelis.
1. No Arab complains when Arabs are killed or murdered by other Arabs, especially governments. The silence was deafening when Hafez Assad murdered over 20,000 in the process of destroying Hama a few years back. No Arab uttered a word when King Hussein killed at least 10,000 Palestinians in 1970. No Arab complained when Saddam Hussein gassed thousands or tens of thousands of Kurds, or Iranians for that matter. It seems that there's a bit of a double standard (gee, I'm shocked - NOT). This is the same BS double standard as in Africa, when it is only bad if Whitey kills or murders Blacks, but OK if it is Idi Amin murdering a couple hundred thousand (and then eating a few of those).
2. The Pallies should be thankful that the Israelis were taking their cities. They should consider what it was like in Berlin in 1945, when the Soviets killed at least 100,000 in capturing that city, partially by the indiscriminate use of artillery and Stalin Organs, not to mention raping, pillaging and other assorted fun stuff. The US Army leveled 80% of Aachen in 1945, killing probably twns of thousands, and used 155mm howitzers as counter-sniper weapons. The Pallies are very lucky.
You know, someday Israel is going to figure out the meaning of the phrase "in for a penny, in for a pound." Then the Pallies' luck will have run out.
The Pallies should shut up and be thankful that Israel has been so humane to them. War is Hell. Instead of getting burned to a cinder, they merely got the equivalent of getting their hair singed.
This Magic 8-Ball is REALLY starting to creep me out!
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