- Evidence of atrocities by Israeli troops in Jenin refugee
camp grew yesterday when a British pathologist said he found "highly
suspicious" wounds during the first autopsy on a victim.
- Derrick Pounder, professor of forensic medicine at Dundee
University, who is working with Amnesty International, visited the ruined
camp and said: "Claims that a large number of civilians died and are
under the rubble are highly credible. It is not believable that only a
few people have been killed, given the reports we have that a large number
of people were inside three and four-storey buildings when they were demolished."
- The autopsy on the 38-year-old Palestinian revealed that
"he was either shot in the foot, and then in the back, or shot in
the back first - receiving a fatal wound - and his corpse was for some
reason shot in the foot," he said. "Whichever order the shots
occurred in, it was highly suspicious".
- As the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, left for
America yesterday, having failed to secure a ceasefire, international fury
was growing over events at Jenin. The camp, home to 13,500 refugees, was
stormed by Israeli forces a fortnight ago in what Mr Sharon called a counter-terrorism
operation against Palestinian militants. The furore has severely damaged
Israel's international standing, sending it to its lowest point for several
decades.
- Palestinians who survived the long battle - in which
Israeli helicopters fired rockets and machine-guns into a densely populated
area - have said the Israeli army committed many atrocities. Witnesses
have described people being shot as they surrendered; houses being bulldozed
with people inside; the use of human shields; the burial of 32 bodies in
a trench, and one case of Israeli soldiers turning on the household gas
supply before tossing a stun grenade into a room full of people.
- Richard Cook, head of operations for Unrwa ñ the
UN agency for Palestinian refugees - visited the camp yesterday. He said:
"I was absolutely appalled. I anticipated it to a degree but the devastation
was much greater than I expected."
- The Foreign Office said "disproportionate and excessive"
force had been used by Israel, and "clearly civilians were not properly
protected".
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