UN Experts: “Israeli” Military Campaign in Jenin may Mount to War Crime

By Staff, Agencies

A group of United Nations experts has ruled that the apartheid entity’s recent murderous and hugely destructive land and aerial military campaign against the northern West Bank city of Jenin might constitute a “war crime”.

The experts sounded the warning on Wednesday.

Nearly two days earlier, Tel Aviv deployed more than 1,000 of its military forces to Jenin as means of supposedly damaging the resistance “infrastructure” in the city and the refugee camp that it hosts.

At least 13 Palestinians were martyred and more than 100 others were wounded as a result of the conflict.

The experts described the campaign as the fiercest to be waged by the entity against the city in more than two decades.

“‘Israeli’ forces’ operations in the occupied West Bank, killing and seriously injuring the occupied population, destroying their homes and infrastructure, and arbitrarily displacing thousands, amount to egregious violations of international law and standards on the use of force and may constitute a war crime,” they said.

They further regretted the fact that some 4,000 Palestinians had been displaced by the operation. “It is heartbreaking to see thousands of Palestinian refugees originally displaced since 1947-1949, forced to march out of the camp in abject fear at the dead of night,” the experts said.

They said there were no justifications for the attacks under international law, noting, “The attacks constitute collective punishment of the Palestinian population, who have been labeled a 'collective security threat' in the eyes of 'Israeli' authorities.”

The experts, meanwhile, expressed grave concern about the military weaponry and tactics that had been deployed by the occupying entity during the raids. They also highlighted multiple reports that pointed out that the “Israeli” forces prevented medics and ambulances from accessing the casualties of the operation.

“The impunity that ‘Israel’ has enjoyed for its acts of violence over decades, only fuel and intensify the recurring cycle of violence,” they said, noting that “For this relentless violence to end, ‘Israel’s’ illegal occupation must end. It cannot be corrected or improved in the margins because it is wrong to the core.”