Operation Defensive Shield

Operation Defensive Shield Part of the Second Intifada File:Ramallah 2002.jpg Israeli tanks in Ramallah Date 29 March–3 May 2002 Location West Bank Result Subsequent launching of Operation Determined Path Belligerents Israel (Israel Defense Forces) Fatah (Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades & Tanzim) Hamas Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine Preventive Security Service Commanders and leaders Aluf Itzhak Eitan (head of Central Command) Strength Golani Brigade, Nahal, Paratroopers Brigade, 5th Reserve Infantry Brigade, 408th Reserve Infantry Brigade, Jerusalem Brigade (reserve), Shayetet 13, Bahad 16, Armor and Engineering forces. Casualties and losses 30 dead, over 100 wounded Around 500 dead [11], hundreds wounded, hundreds captured

Operation Defensive Shield (Hebrew: מבצע חומת מגן, Mivtza Homat Magen, lit. "Operation Defensive Wall") was a large-scale military operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces in 2002, during the course of the Second Intifada. It was the largest military operation in the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War. The operation was an attempt by the Israeli army to stop the increasing deaths from terrorist attacks.

Operation Defensive Shield began on March 29, 2002, with an incursion into Ramallah placing Yasser Arafat under siege in his Ramallah compound, followed by incursions into the six largest cities in the West Bank, and their surrounding localities. The Israel Defense Forces invaded Tulkarm and Qalqilya on April 1, Bethlehem the next day, Jenin and Nablus the next. From April 3-21, the period was characterized by strict curfews on civilian populations and restrictions of movement of international personnel, including at times prohibition of entry to humanitarian and medical personnel as well as human rights monitors and journalists.

According to The Guardian, during the three weeks of Operation Defensive Shield at least 500 Palestinians were killed and 1500 were wounded. According to the Palestine Red Crescent Society over 4,258 people were detained by the Israeli military. The Israeli offensive left 29 Israeli soldiers dead, and 127 wounded. In addition to loss of life, massive economic losses due to destruction of property and the inability to reach workplaces were a major characteristic of this period. The World Bank estimated that over $360 million worth of damage was caused to Palestinian infrastructure and institutions, $158 million of which came from the aerial bombardment and destruction of houses in Nablus and Jenin. Large sectors of the Palestinian population were left homeless by the operation. Long after Operation Defensive Shield was over, Palestinians spoke about the intensity of the closures during that period, and the Palestinian Authority did not manage to fully address damaged infrastructure for approximately two years after the invasions.

The UN report on the subject says, "Combatants on both sides conducted themselves in ways that, at times, placed civilians in harm's way. Much of the fighting during Operation Defensive Shield occurred in areas heavily populated by civilians and in many cases heavy weaponry was used."

Background

The cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians escalated during the Second Intifada. March and April 2002 saw a dramatic increase in suicide bomb attacks against Israelis by Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, and two waves of incursions by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) into Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank.

The first wave of Israeli incursions began on 27 February through to 14 March, causing significant civilian loss of life. Following nine attacks by Palestinian militants between March 2-5, the Israeli cabinet decided to massively expand its military activity against these groups. On March 5th, while talking with reporters in the Knesset cafeteria, Sharon, pointing to the the bloodiest week against Israelis since the start of the Second Intifada, explained the cabinet's decision: "The Palestinians must be hit, and it must be very painful... We must cause them losses, victims, so that they feel a heavy price." Suicide bombings continued, with attacks on 9 March (see Café Moment bombing), and 20 March. followed by a larger attack on 27 March (an event known as the Passover massacre in which 30 Israeli civilians were killed), prompted the Israeli government to announce Operation Defensive Shield on March 29, and deploy the IDF on a wave of incursions into the West Bank in a large-scale counter-terrorist offensive. The Israel Defense Forces issued emergency call-up notices for 20,000 reserve soldiers, the largest call-up since the 1982 Lebanon War.

Overall, in March 2002, some 130 Israelis including approximately 100 noncombatants were killed by Palestinians, while a total of 238 Palestinians including at least 83 noncombatants were killed in the same month by the IDF.

Stated goals

The stated goals of the operation (as conveyed to the Israeli Knesset by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on April 8, 2002) were to "to catch and arrest terrorists and, primarily, their dispatchers and those who finance and support them; to confiscate weapons intended to be used against Israeli citizens; to expose and destroy facilities and explosives, laboratories, weapons production factories and secret installations. The orders are clear: target and paralyze anyone who takes up weapons and tries to oppose our troops, resists them or endangers them - and to avoid harming the civilian population." IDF officers also noted that incursions would force Palestinian militants "to exert their energy by defending their homes in the camps instead of by plotting attacks on Israelis."

The Palestinian attachment to the UN report on Operation Defensive Shield challenged the validity of the Israeli claim that it was targeting "terrorists," noting that, "[...] the record shows clearly that the nature of the actions taken, the amount of harm inflicted on the population and the practical results prove completely different political goals [...] the Israeli occupying forces have consistently targeted the Palestinian police and security forces, instead of 'terrorists', and have consistently tried to destroy the Palestinian Authority and declared it an 'enemy', instead of groups hostile to peace in the Middle East."

The operation

By April 3, the IDF was conducting major military operations inside all Palestinian cities, with the exception of Hebron and Jericho. During the operation, strict curfews were placed on at least six major Palestinian cities, resulting in complaints by human rights groups that essential medical attention was being denied to wounded, sick and elderly Palestinians, as well as complaints that Israel was practicing collective punishment, which is prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention. In some cities, there were scheduled breaks in the curfews. In others, curfews continued uninterrupted for a week or more. Major points of conflict were in Bethlehem, Jenin, Nablus, and Ramallah.

Throughout the Battle of Jenin, and for a few days afterwards, the city and its refugee camp were under total closure. There was much concern at the time about possible human rights violations occurring in the camp. However, reports of a large-scale massacre there were found to be untrue, a result of confusion resulting from the Israeli refusal to allow entry to outside observers, and/or Palestinian media manipulation. The Jenin incursion battle saw heavy losses among the Israeli infantry as well as heavy Palestinian casualties. The battle was eventually won by the IDF after the utilization of Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozers, that were impervious to Palestinian weapons, demolished houses and cleared explosive charges.

The city of Bethlehem and its environs remained under curfew for five weeks, with periodic breaks. The Siege of the Church of the Nativity (April 2 - May 20), which began after Palestinian gunmen entered the church along with policemen and civilians upon the entrance of Israeli troops to Bethlehem, ended with a deal seeing some militants go to the Gaza Strip, and the rest exiled to Cyprus. [12] [13]

In Ramallah, the IDF besieged the Mukataa,Yasser Arafat's presidential compound, in an effort to isolate him physically and diplomatically.

The UN report on the subject noted: "It was not only the Palestinian people whose movement was restricted during Operation Defensive Shield. In many instances, humanitarian workers were not able to reach people in need to assess conditions and deliver necessary assistance because of the sealing of cities, refugee camps and villages during the operation. There were also cases of Israeli forces not respecting the neutrality of medical and humanitarian workers and attacking ambulances."

In reply to these complaints, the Israeli army stated that the curfew was placed in order to prevent civilians from being caught in gunfights and getting hurt. Palestinian ambulances were stopped for checks following the discovery of an explosive belt in a Red Crescent ambulance.

The operation officially ended on May 10, 2002, although occupations and curfews continued after that time, gradually tapering off. Shortly afterwards, Operation Determined Path was launched.

Aftermath

Military outcome

According to the Israeli Intelligence & Terrorism Information Center, the effects of Operation Defensive Shield were an initial drop in half (46 percent) in the number of suicide bombings—from 22 in February-March to 12 in April-May—and a 70 percent drop in executed attacks between the first half of 2002 and the second half (43 January-June, 13 July-December). While 2003 had a total of 25 executed suicide bombings in comparison to 56 in 2002, the main difference was the number of attacks which did not come to realization (184) either due to Israeli interception or problems in the execution. 2003 also saw a 35 percent drop in the number of fatalities from 220 deaths in 2002 to 142 deaths resulting from suicide bombings.

Beverly Milton-Edwards, Professor of Politics at Queen's University in Belfast, writes that while aspects of Palestinian militancy were reduced after the operation, Israel's objective of ending the Al-Aqsa Intifada remained unmet. Israeli destruction of institutions belonging to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the "emasculation" of the PA and its President, Yasser Arafat, opened a vacuum in the social and welfare system that was rapidly filled by the Hamas, whose popularity grew. Milton-Edwards concludes that, "The unequivocal victory [sought by Israel] eventually remained elusive and the Israelis and Palestinians resumed a variety of forms of low intensity warfare with each other.".

Fact finding and criticism

A UN fact-finding mission was established under UN Security Council Resolution 1405 (April 19 2002) into Operation Defensive Shield following Palestinian charges that a massacre had occurred in Jenin. In its attachment to the UN report the Palestinian Authority decried Israel's "culture of impunity" and called for "an international presence to monitor compliance with international humanitarian law, to help in providing protection to Palestinian civilians and to help the parties to implement agreements reached." A report of the European Union attached in the report stated, "The massive destruction, especially at the centre of the refugee camp, to which all heads of mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah can testify, shows that the site had undergone an indiscriminate use of force, that goes well beyond that of a battlefield."

Human Rights Watch determined that "Israeli forces committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, some amounting prima facie to war crimes."

Amnesty International reported that war crimes occurred in the Jenin refugee camp and in Nablus, including: unlawful killings; a failure to ensure medical or humanitarian relief; demolition of houses and property occurred (sometime with civilians still inside); water and electricity supplies to civilians were cut; torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in arbitrary detention occurred; and Palestinians civilians were used for military operations or as "human shields." According to Amnesty, "the IDF acted as though the main aim was to punish all Palestinians."

The UN report noted that, "United Nations agencies and other international agencies, when allowed into Ramallah and other Palestinian cities, documented extensive physical damage to Palestinian Authority civilian property. That damage included the destruction of office equipment, such as computers and photocopying machines, that did not appear to be related to military objectives. While denying that such destruction was systematic, the Israeli Defence Forces have admitted that their personnel engaged in some acts of vandalism, and are carrying out some related prosecutions." Cheryl Rubenberg writes that data and records held by Palestinian civilian institutions were systematically destroyed by the IDF; among the institutions affected were the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the Palestinian Authority's Ministries of Culture, Education and Health, and the Palestine International Bank. Amira Hass, in an editorial in Ha'aretz criticized the IDF for these practices, dubbing the offensive "Operation Destroy the Data".

Jenin massacre allegations

A great deal of the media attention to Operation Defensive Shield centered around Palestinians claims of a large scale massacre in Jenin and Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat was widely quoted by the press as saying there were 500 massacred Palestinians in the Israeli assault on Jenin.

Initially Israel welcomed an investigation, announcing that it would cooperate fully with the Secretary General's fact-finding effort. According to the United Jewish Communities, Israel made a number of points regarding the team's methodology, in order to "safeguard the impartiality of its work." However, Israeli government receptivity to cooperating with the UN fact-finding mission decreased when Kofi Annan did not appoint a predominantly technical team with specialized military and forensic expertise, but rather political-administrative figures without such specialized skills (including Cornelio Sommaruga, controversial for previous "Red Swastika" remarks), and after Palestinian officials reduced the casualty toll in Jenin on May 1 2002. to be between 50-60 deaths while Israel maintained there were only seven or eight civilian casualties. The charges of a massacre which had sparked demands for a U.N. investigation, had now been dropped. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, disbanded the UN fact-finding team in Jenin supposed to determine whether a massacre had taken place with the comment:"Clearly the full cooperation of both sides was a precondition for this, as was a visit to the area itself to see the Jenin refugee camp at first hand and to gather information. This is why the Secretariat engaged in a thorough clarification process with the Israeli delegation."

Reported first-hand allegations

David Rohde of The New York Times on the April 16 reported: Saed Dabayeh, who said he stayed in the camp through the fighting, led a group of reporters to a pile of rubble where he said he watched from his bedroom window as Israeli soldiers buried 10 bodies. "There was a hole here where they buried bodies," he said. "And then they collapsed a house on top of it." The Palestinian accounts could not be verified. The smell of decomposing bodies hung over at least six heaps of rubble today, and weeks of excavation may be needed before an accurate death toll can be made.

Stewart Bell of the National Post on the April 15 reported that Ahmed Tibi, an Arab member of the Israeli Knesset, said he had met hundreds of Palestinians displaced by what he termed the "massacre" in Jenin. According to Tibi, "Everyone has a tragedy, about executions they saw, about their whole family that was killed, about the most tangible concern -- where is my family?" Bell reported that Jenin's population recounted "vivid accounts" of fighting and homes being demolished but first-hand accounts of massacres was scarce. One such rumor was a grocery store owner near Jenin who spoke of seeing Israeli troops using a refrigerated truck to hold the bodies of massacred Palestinians, which he said was still parked on a nearby hill. He refused to elaborate out of fear from "collaborators." Bell reported that a National Post reporter inspected the truck and found that it contained apples and other food for the Israeli soldiers.

Bibliography

• Milton-Edwards, Beverley (2008). The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A People's War (Illustrated ed.). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0415410436, 9780415410434. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
• Rubenberg, Cheryl (2003). The Palestinians: in search of a just peace (Illustrated ed.). Lynne Rienner Publishers. ISBN 1588262251, 9781588262257. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)

External links

• Passover suicide bombing at Park Hotel in Netanya
• Israelbooks.com Goldenberg, Doron (2003). State of Siege. Gefen Publishing House.