UN Experts Call Israel's Military Operations In Jenin A Serious Violation Of International Law And Could Be A War Crime

Israeli military Home and Garden operations when they invaded the Jenin area, West Bank. (Wikimedia Commons/IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

JAKARTA - The UN human rights expert assessed that the military operation held by Israel for two days in the Jenin refugee camp, West Bank, Palestine, may be a war crime.

Israel launched a military operation that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named the code 'Home & Garden' in Jenin which began Monday. At least 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have died in the city's largest Israeli military operation in two decades.

Israeli forces used bulldozers to destroy the streets of Jenin, forcing thousands of people to flee the camp, which usually houses about 14,000 people. Yesterday, the Israeli military announced its troops had been withdrawn from Jenin.

"The operation of Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank, killing and seriously injuring the occupied population, destroying their homes and infrastructure and arbitrarily displacing thousands of people, constitutes a gross violation of international law and standards on the use of force and can become a war crime," experts said in a statement. a statement, reported The National News July 6.

Meanwhile, according to the United Nations, at least 4,000 Palestinians have fled their homes over the past two days.

Israel itself said the operation was aimed at eradicating armed Palestinians, after dozens of shooting attacks on their citizens and territories over the past year.

Experts condemned the "counter-terrorism" operation carried out by Israeli forces in Jenin, stressing the attack "does not have justification under international law.

"Palestinians in occupied Palestinian territories are protected under international law, guaranteed by all human rights including presumption of innocence," experts say.

"They cannot be treated as a collective security threat by the power of occupation," the experts stressed.

The end of Israel's "illegal residence" that goes against the principles of justice and legality, experts note the military operation was the "wrathest" in the West Bank since Jenin's destruction of the camp in 2002.

"It is heartbreaking to see thousands of Palestinian refugees initially displaced since 1947-1949, forced out of the camp in a despicable fear in the middle of the night," they added, as quoted by the Daily Sabah.

On Wednesday, Turkey's Anadolu news agency reported nearly 80 percent of homes in Jenin's refugee camps were "destroyed, damaged or burned" in Israeli operations.

It said the Israeli attack on Jenin was "an amplification of structural violence that has flared into Palestinian occupied territories for decades."

"The impunity that Israel enjoys over its acts of violence for decades, has only sparked and intensified repeated cycles of violence," the statement said.

UN experts call for Israel to be held accountable under international law for "illegal population and acts of violence to perpetuate it".

Mayor Jenin Nidal Al Obeidi, said nearly a third of the camp's residents had left the area during the operation.

It is known, experts, known as'special whistleblowers' reported their findings to the United Nations, but operated independently, as they monitored rights abuses around the world.

Nearly 190 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of this year, according to the Ministry of Health. Meanwhile, about 25 Israelis were also killed in separate attacks during the same period.