However, a Human Rights
Watch report concluded: "Israeli forces committed serious
violations of international humanitarian law, some amounting
prima facie to war crimes.
"Human Rights Watch found no evidence to sustain claims of
massacres or largescale extrajudicial executions by the IDF
in Jenin refugee camp. However, many of the civilian deaths
documented by Human Rights Watch amounted to unlawful or willful
killings by the IDF.
"Many others could have been avoided if the IDF had taken
proper precautions to protect civilian life during its military
operation, as required by international humanitarian law.
... Some of the cases documented by Human Rights Watch amounted
to summary executions, a clear war crime.
"Throughout the incursion, IDF soldiers used Palestinian
civilians to protect them from danger, deploying them as 'human
shields' and forcing them to perform dangerous work ... the
IDF prevented humanitarian organizations, including the International
Committee of the Red Cross, from gaining access to the camp
and its civilian inhabitants, despite the great humanitarian
need."
The scars of the conflict, and the poverty, are painful to
see in these pictures. The walls of many buildings are still
covered with posters hailing suicide bombers as martyrs. As
we picked our way apprehensively through the streets I found
the place strangely beautiful in a tragic way, and wanted
to stay longer.
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