UN experts raise concerns over potential war crimes in Israel’s raids on Jenin

A group of United Nations experts said Wednesday that the recent Israeli raids on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank may constitute a war crime.

“The operations of Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, which kill and seriously injure the occupied population, destroy their homes and infrastructure, and arbitrarily displace thousands, amount to flagrant violations of international law and norms regarding the use of force and may constitute a war crime,” the experts said in a statement. .

The statement noted that Israeli forces killed at least 12 Palestinians, including five children, and injured more than 100 Palestinians, between Monday and Tuesday, and said the attacks were “one of the largest Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank in years.”

It said the attacks damaged infrastructure, homes and apartment buildings and forced 4,000 Palestinians to flee.

The experts said that “the attacks were the fiercest in the West Bank since the destruction of the Jenin camp in 2002.”

They added, “It is heartbreaking to see thousands of Palestinian refugees who were originally displaced since 1947-1949, and forced out of the camp in great fear with the onset of darkness.”

The statement condemned the so-called actions of the Israeli forces to “combat terrorism” because they “have no legal justification under international law” and expressed “grave concern” about the weapons and military tactics used by the Israeli occupation forces at least twice in the past two weeks. against the residents of Jenin.

“The Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories are protected persons under international law and all human rights are guaranteed, including the presumption of innocence,” she said.

“The occupying power cannot treat them as a collective security threat, especially at a time when it is advancing the annexation of the occupied Palestinian territories and the dispossession and dispossession of its Palestinian population,” the statement said.

She said that the Israeli raids on Jenin are “an amplification of the structural violence that permeates the occupied Palestinian territories for decades.”

“The impunity enjoyed by Israel for the acts of violence it has committed over the decades serves only to fuel and intensify the recurring cycle of violence,” the statement said.

The UN experts called for Israel to be held responsible under international law for its “illegal occupation and its violent actions to perpetuate it.”

“In order to end this ongoing violence, the illegal Israeli occupation must be ended,” they said. “It cannot be corrected or improved on the margins, because it is wrong at its core.”

The Israeli attack came amid rising tensions across the occupied West Bank in recent months amid frequent Israeli raids on Palestinian towns.

Israeli forces have killed nearly 190 Palestinians since the beginning of this year, according to the Ministry of Health. At least 25 Israelis were killed in separate attacks during the same period.

It is estimated that about 700,000 Israeli settlers live in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the occupied West Bank.

Under international law, all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are illegal.