MIDDLE EAST: A British military adviser to Amnesty International said yesterday that the Israeli army's demolition of part of Jenin refugee camp did not seem militarily justified.
But Reserve Maj David Holley dismissed Palestinian allegations that a massacre had taken place there, predicting that no evidence would be found to substantiate them. He said information he had gleaned so far suggested the army bulldozed the camp centre after fighting abated to avenge heavy casualties exacted by Palestinian gunmen. The army has said it razed houses that were booby-trapped.
Maj Holley said the destruction probably entombed some civilians who were too frightened to emerge from their homes.
He was part of an Amnesty team led by the campaign's secretary-general, Ms Irene Khan, in the camp, where refugees were still scrabbling in the ruins for belongings. "We have found credible evidence of serious violations of international humanitarian law and we want the UN fact-finding team to focus on that to bring out the truth," Ms Khan said. The Amnesty International team said it was investigating both the Israeli assault on the Jenin camp and Palestinian attacks on Jewish settlers and wanted to produce a balanced reckoning.
Maj Holley said credible accounts from residents he had interviewed, as well as comparisons with other battlefields he had studied, suggested the centre of the camp was pulverised after serious Palestinian resistance had subsided.
"This is not a battle scene so much as an earthquake scene. My interpretation is that the battle had been won, the \ killed or captured for the most part, then came punishment in the form of bulldozers," he said.
Maj Holley said Israel had often demolished Palestinian homes in towns and camps in the past in reprisal for militant violence. He said military discipline may have broken down after Palestinian fighters ambushed and killed 23 soldiers.
"It seems that any so-called 'law and order' in the camp broke down at that point. I've seen it in war - when you see your best friend die as half a company is wiped out, a red mist comes down and soldiers go mad," he said. He said accounts collected from residents indicated that after the ambush Israeli forces had given people little or no chance to leave their homes before bulldozers flattened them.
An Amnesty investigator, Ms Elizabeth Hodgkin, said 54 bodies had been recovered since fighting ended and 21 of them appeared to be civilians.
The latest was an infant found on Friday with the umbilical cord still attached, according to the death registrar at Jenin's main hospital. The baby's mother is still missing.