In a latest report, titled "Israel and the Occupied Territories: Shielded from Scrutiny — IDF violations in Jenin and Nablus," Amnesty said there is "clear evidence that some of the act committed by the Israel Defense Forces ... were war crimes."
Israeli carried out "unlawful killings, torture and ill-treatment of prisoners, wanton destruction of hundreds of homes," according to Amnesty.
Soldiers also blocked access to ambulances and denied humanitarian assistance, leaving the wounded and dead lying in the streets for days, and used Palestinians as "human shields" while searching for suspected militants, Amnesty said.

"Up to now, the Israeli authorities have failed in their responsibility to bring to justice the perpetrators of serious human rights violations," the Amnesty report said.

Jenin was the site of the heaviest fighting — more than 50 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed.

There is still a debate about how many of those Palestinians were fighters and how many were civilians.

An earlier report by Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based group, found 22 of the Palestinians killed were civilians.

The Amnesty report claimed that more than half the Palestinians killed in Jenin were civilians, but did not give specific figures.

Palestinian Cabinet Secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman applauded Amnesty's accusations against Israel.

"The (U.N.) Security Council and the parties that signed the Geneva Conventions should take this report as proof of war crimes committed by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people and act immediately to punish the Sharon government," Rahman said.

Kathleen Cavanaugh, a researcher for Amnesty International, said Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, who is to become Israel's new defense minister this week, could be charged with war crimes for his role as the army's chief of staff during the incursions.

Asked if Mofaz was guilty of the offenses discussed in the report, Cavanaugh said: "It doesn't matter whether someone actually executed the order on the ground. If they were aware, if they were involved in the planning and operations — all of that chain of command can be held responsible."

The Amnesty report includes accounts from Palestinians present during the April fighting. They tell stories of torture, beatings of prisoners who were stripped and of soldiers demolishing homes with residents still inside.

"The IDF (Israeli army) blocked medical aid for days; in addition they shot at ambulances or fired warning shots around them," Amnesty said. "In several cases, people reportedly died in circumstances where lack of access to medical care may have caused or hastened their death."

The United Nations also concluded in its report on Jenin that Israel had delayed critical medical and humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in violation of international humanitarian law.