Palestinian sources are now saying that their death toll in the 2002 IDF incursion into Jenin, was 52, at least 34 of whom were armed, contradicting earlier Palestinian claims that thousands had died, a study to be released next month says.

The study indicates for the first time that Palestinian terror organizations saw themselves as "armed combatants" and not as civilians who died in a deadly massacre. The study's significance is that it uses Palestinian sources to rebut the original Palestinian claims.

"The study directly contradicts the baseless charges made by PA leaders, including Saeb Erekat, that Israel had massacred 500 Palestinians in Jenin," said Dore Gold, director of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, which sponsored the study. "That blatant lie made its way from the screens of CNN to the UN Security Council."

The battle, which was a part of Israel's Operation Defensive Shield against terrorism, took place from April 4-11, 2002. In the days after the event, Palestinian sources said hundreds, if not thousands, had been killed in the attack. Media worldwide initially reported the IDF's activities as a massacre. A total of 23 IDF soldiers died in the incident.

Within days of the event, soldiers who fought in the warrens of the camp rejected Palestinian claims the IDF buried some 500 Palestinian men, women, and children in mass graves, or that the army had executed some 50 Palestinians after they had been arrested.

In the months afterward, virtually all organizations investigating the massacre claims rejected the initial Palestinian assertions.

Israel was effectively cleared of the massacre charges in an August report by the United Nations. The report blasted armed Palestinians for operating inside civilian refugee camps and termed their methods "breaches of international law that have been and continue to be condemned by the United Nations."

Human Rights Watch said in January the IDF did not commit a massacre in Jenin during "Defensive Shield." The organization's official report echoed an initial assessment by a Human Rights Watch researcher as early as May 2002 rejecting massacre claims.

The new study, conducted by Jonathan D. HaLevi for the center used a wide and comprehensive variety of Palestinian written testimony and material recently published in Palestinian newspapers, books and web sites. It was , provided exclusively to the Jerusalem Post in advance of its wider release.

The 35-page study says Fatah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas prepared themselves with automatic weapons, grenades, anti-tank missiles and explosives, and perceived the confrontation with IDF troops as nothing less than a "military to military battle."

The study rebuts claims at the time by Palestinian Authorities that IDF forces were attacking civilians, and that the only Palestinians who died in the battle were unarmed Palestinian men, women and children.

Among other details, the study also reveals that Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad established a joint military operations room in preparation for the battle. In addition the research indicates the three groups had created a joint bomb-making facility in Jenin that produced more than two tons of explosives.

The JCPA paper states civilians were intentionally used as human shields, and that both women and children were deployed by the three groups to divert IDF troops into ambushes and booby-trapped areas.

The Jenin Refugee Camp was prepared as a "reinforced fortress," where nearly 200 Palestinian terrorists had gathered for the battle, the research says.

"The myth of a massacre at Jenin was the 'crown jewel' of a sophisticated effort to delegitimatize the State of Israel" Gold said.