Jenin

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After a recent suicide attack inside the borders of pre-1948 Palestine that claimed 17 lives, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) re-occupied Jenin 18 days ago. The official reason for this military re-invasion is a search to arrest or assassinate 21 wanted activists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

However, only a minimum of the IOF's man-power, in the form of commandos and special forces, is being used in this hunt. The majority of the over 1,000 troops residing in Jenin, equipped with a very large number of Merkava tanks, armoured jeeps, bull-dozers, Apache helicopters, live ammunition, rubber bullets, stun grenades and pepper gas, are stationed here with orders to collectively punish the entire population of Jenin camp and city, and to continue the types of war crimes seen on a massive scale in the April invasions.

The camp and city have effectively been under permanent curfew since the re-invasion. Water and electricity lines have been cut more than two weeks ago and any attempt to repair them is met with either the detention or arrest of municipal workers. They and providers of health care, running water and bread, a number of Red Crescent ambulance drivers and paramedics, water truck drivers, the entire staff of the only functioning bakery in town, local UN workers, doctors and the head of a local group that provides support for Palestinian political prisoners, were all arrested in the course of one day and detained at Salem military base during the house to house searches.

So far, over 1,500 Palestinian men between the ages of 13-65 have been taken into detention at both Salem and Jelame military bases. Most of them are held for 2-3 days - blindfolded, handcuffed, often stripped down to their underwear, beaten severely, without food or water. Sometimes their ID cards are confiscated, which can result in another three months in administrative detention if they are re-arrested without it. Some of the detainees were threatened with death if they tried to return to their homes before an Israeli withdrawal from Jenin. Those who return face the risk of being shot in deserted streets where curfew is being enforced by snipers and foot patrols of trigger-happy soldiers.

Between 35-40 homes have been occupied by the Israeli army, trashing and stealing anything inside. In all except two of these homes, the entire populace of the homes were locked into one room with little or no food, drinking water or access to a toilet. To move to the kitchen, use the toilet or gain access to medical care, a family had to engage in often hours-long negotiations with the soldiers. If permission was granted, all things had to be done at gun-point. 'Human shields' of unarmed Palestinian men, women, and children, pushed ahead of fully-armed, bullet-proof vested Israeli soldiers into possible lines of fire (often handcuffed and sometimes blindfolded), have been used repeatedly over the past 17 days in the house to house searches and trashings.

16 people have been killed over the course of the past 17 days, 14 of who are deemed children by international conventions.

Source: ISM report