7th July 2023
By Charlotte Maher / GICJ
Air strikes in the Jenin Refugee camp in Palestine mark a significant escalation of the on-going military operations in the occupied West Bank in Palestine.
In the early hours of the 3rd of July 2023, the Israeli military launched 15 air strikes over the Jenin refugee camp, an area home to 20,000 Palestinians. The air strikes were followed by clashes with gunmen and an encirclement of the camp by a convoy of armoured vehicles with over 1,000 troops. An exodus of 4,000 Palestinians fled the camp overnight, in the same way as those Palestinian refugees originally displaced in 1947. The Palestinian Ministry of Health has confirmed the death toll to be 12 Palestinian civilians, of which 5 were children. However, this figure is likely to increase given that at least 100 other civilians were injured, including 20 of whom are suffering in critical condition. Importantly, the attack also consisted of rare drone strikes demonstrating that Israeli forces are willing to use every type of weapon in their arsenal. Days before, the army even used a helicopter gunship to extract troops from the region, something which hasn’t been seen in two decades.
This military attack falls under the context of a series of operations having intensified since March 2022 in Jenin and other outlying areas in the north of the West Bank. The aforementioned attack came only thirteen days after a fierce army raid, on the 19th of June, in which 4 Palestinians were killed and another 91 were injured. During this attack the army is said to have targeted, civilians, medics and journalists, with sniper shots being fired centimetres away from them. The city of Jenin was the target of some of the most destructive fighting during the second intifada (Palestinian uprising) in the 2000s. Twenty years later the region is yet again home to full-scale attacks which the Presidency has deemed a “new war against the Palestinian people”.
The enclosure of the camp, alongside the destruction of roads from the strikes, prevented access for medical teams and ambulances to reach those suffering from critical injuries. This is a breach of international humanitarian law as set out in Section III of the Fourth Geneva Convention and in the 1907 Hague Regulations as well as in customary law rules. An occupying power must allow relief operations to take place and ensure the existence and functioning of active medical services. The World Health Organisation (WHO) is concerned about the strain such attacks are placing on the already compromised health system. The WHO documented 124 attacks on healthcare sites between January and May 2023, whilst other organisations such as Physicians for Human Rights have equally reported of many hospital attacks. Such figures depict the consistency of violence and conflict in this region and highlight the daily risk for those living there.
The following day, the 4th of July, the surge of anger engendered from the gravity of this attack, provoked what is being referred to as the retaliation attack in Tel Aviv, when a Palestinian drove into some pedestrians before being shot himself by an Israeli. The Hamas group which controls the region of Gaza have expressed their drive to support Jenin in its resistance, affirming that the Israeli occupation is far from winning this battle. It is therefore probable to deduce that we are likely to see further violence from both sides as tensions rise, citizens revolt, raids fail to cease and pain for loss of loved ones and fellow countrymen is ever agonising and tormenting.
In the delivery of an official statement, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu justified the motivation of this attack as “comprehensive action against terrorist strongholds” and attested that Israeli troops have had to fight on the basis of self-defence. He continued to affirm that the Jenin refugee camp has become a “safe-haven” for terrorists, despite its well-known establishment as a refugee camp since 1953, being regularly visited by UN agencies. The Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh contested these statements iterating that an internationally recognised occupying power does not possess such right to self-defence. A group of UN Human rights experts have denounced the so-called ‘counter terrorism’ as a justification for such acts and refuted the treatment of Palestinians as a “collective security threat”.
Israel has been consistent in its accusations of the Jenin camp as a base for fighters funded by Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups. The presence of these groups has indeed been growing in the area of Jenin in correlation with the decline of protection from the Palestinian Authority security forces, backed by much of the international community (PA). The PA claims Israel has obliterated its influence and credibility, whilst the forces have also experienced internal incompetence and corruption. It is under this pretext that other militant groups such as the Islamist Hamas group, which controls the Gaza Strip, have been able to assert their presence.
The Israeli Prime Minister concluded his statement with his belief that the United States would support the decisions taken. He has reason to assume this, given the unwavering support of the Biden Administration, backing Israel’s right to defend itself in every attack enacted. The 3rd of July attack in Jenin was no acceptation. Such leniency in denouncing Israel’s violations of International Humanitarian Law, including the Geneva Conventions, undermines the value of these legal accords. The absence of consequence from one of the world’s major powers, the US, drives Israeli military action seeing as the consequential implications are near to non-existent. The US support for Israel isn’t limited to abstract claims. The US provides $3.8 billion of aid to Israel each year, regardless of its pledge to prioritise human rights in its foreign policy. In 2022, the $1 billion supplementary funding to Israel for the stockage of missile interceptors at the Iron Drone, is a materialisation of the US support for military operations and weapons development in Israel.
The European Union Commissioner for Crisis Management tweeted that “International Humanitarian Law must be respected at all times” and commiserated the devastating loss of civilian lives as well as damage to infrastructure and displacement of people from their homes. Furthermore, the UN secretary-General has expressed a “deep concern” following this escalation of military operation. Additionally, UN Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory, on the human rights of IDPs and on violence against women and girls, stated that the Israeli attacks constitute collective punishment of the Palestinian population. They furthermore stipulate that Israel’s impunity is fuelling reoccurring structural violence and declared that the situation cannot be improved or corrected but requires an absolute termination of Israel’s illegal occupation. Nevertheless, this conflict only seems to be accelerating with the Israeli military ramping up operations across the whole West Bank and preparing for missile strikes in Gaza and in certain parts of Lebanon.
Geneva International Centre for Justice (GICJ) joins together with the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organisations in the urgent demand that Israel refrains from preventing medical and humanitarian personnel to access those needing immediate and critical care.
The United Nations needs to carry out immediate and comprehensive investigations into Israeli violations and compel Israel, the occupying power, to comply with its obligations through effective measures. The ICC is already in the process of investigating Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Palestinian occupied territory. Therefore, the most recent escalation should be a clear impetus for the court to take immediate steps to pursue breaches of international humanitarian law.
Finally, we believe that the non-compliance of Israel with the hundreds of UN resolutions demanding principally to end continuous violations and occupation of the Palestinian territory, is a critical offense compromising human lives and fundamental state integrity. We assert that this non-compliance with the longest standing case on the international agenda is only damaging the credibility of the UN as a functioning body.
