ISRAEL/OCCUPIED TERRITORIES: HUMAN RIGHTS DELEGATES ARRIVE AT JENIN

The delegation, which includes Javier Zúñiga, Director of Regional Strategy in the International Secretariat of the organisation; Kathleen Cavanaugh, from the Department of Law at Galway University, Ireland; and Derrick Pounder, Professor of Forensic Medicine in Dundee University, Scotland, are still seeking access to the hospital and the refugee camp.

Amnesty International's delegates said:

'We fear that if investigations are not carried out at once to clarify the circumstances of the killings of hundreds of Palestinians in Jenin refugee camp, crucial evidence may be destroyed as Israel continues to impede access to the camp to the outside world.'

The Amnesty International delegates have been talking to Palestinians who have escaped from Jenin, as well as residents of Jenin and the camps, by telephone. Amnesty International has also received eyewitness testimony of houses being shelled or bulldozed on top of the residents, and of Palestinians, including Children's rights being left to bleed to death in the streets.

The Israeli Defence Forces have said that the scores who were killed in Jenin died in combat.

Amnesty International's 20-page report 'Israel/Occupied Territories, The heavy price of Israeli incursions' (12 April 2002) is available online