Briefing by
Brigadier General Ron Kitrey, IDF Spokesman
National Media Center, Jerusalem,
April 9, 2002
Brigadier General Ron Kitrey, IDF Spokesman:
I almost said good evening, but it is not a very good evening for us
unfortunately. I came here to share with you today's events, this
morning's events in the town of Jenin, in which we lost thirteen
reservists, infantry soldiers. Several more soldiers were wounded. I
would like to start with a sharing of the grief we feel, the empathy,
the sympathy we feel towards the families of those thirteen soldiers.
We would like to share with you the need that we had to embargos our
announcement concerning this event, because we have a strict rule,
that is to let the families know first about what happened to their
dear ones, and only then to share it with the public through the
media.
Unfortunately, during that event we had a certain period of time in
which we couldn't find three soldiers. Later on, and that is why we
had the need to embargo all the information, we found them, all dead
unfortunately under the ruins of a certain building. Only then could
we actually go to the families complete with that sad information and
then come out to the media.
We are fighting in Jenin for about a week. Jenin is the northern town
of Samaria, the West Bank area. I checked: 23 terrorist attacks came
out from Jenin, before the operation that we are handling now
actually started. Twenty three. Several of them were suicide attacks,
especially on Afula, Hadera, the northern and north west part of
Israel. We went there because the Palestinian Authority did not give
us an option. We counted on them to take care of terrorism coming
from there, and not only that they were not doing their job which is
a part of the agreement with us, they are even responsible for
several of the attacks here. So we had to go there and sent over
soldiers, both reservists and regulars, in order to root out the
terror infrastructure.
The degree of the violent resistance that we faced there, was to a
degree beyond our expectations, probably the most bitter and harsh
resistance that we faced from all other towns or cities of Judea and
Samaria. We faced hundreds, maybe coming to more then a thousand
explosive charges, live explosive charges and some more sophisticated
ones. We face hundreds of hand grenades and of course light weapons
like Kalashnikov's, and of guns and light machine guns etc. At the
beginning we faced hundreds of gunmen, several of them terrorists,
other militias and now we believe that there are still several dozens
of them. I cannot tell you, I do not know if there are 40 or 60 or 80
at the last area in which Palestinian terrorist resistance still
exists. Actually we offered them fair surrender to give up their
weapons, and to surrender to our troops in order to avoid more
casualties mainly on their side but also on our side. We got nothing
but more shooting, and as I said, quite severe resistance.
They have chosen deliberately the environment of civilian
neighborhoods, civilian areas. That is the typical way guerrilla and
terror warfare is carried out around the world. and this made it
especially difficult for us, because of the methods, limitations and
means that we can, could use in such a vicinity. We know there are
civilians there, that's why we don't use more efficient means that
could make things easier for us. We feel, we understand, that we paid
the price today, a very bitter price, because of that reason.
The area itself, you can see behind me a view of the town of Jenin,
the more dense, the more squeezed area is here you will be able to
see later, closer. To see a blow up-here, with the red signal here,
points out the area in which the blast took place. A very short
description of the area - very dense and very narrow alleys between
the buildings, two- to three-story buildings. We sent an infantry
force in there, reinforced by some armor, engineers, medics,
intelligence, field intelligence etc. again with a combination of
regulars and reservists. I would like to like to note, with
appreciation, profound appreciation, admiration even, their
determination, to their persistence and their courage.
We had to take certain precautions, because of the civilian vicinity.
We have given strict orders not to shoot, to hold back fire, the
moment you see or feel civilian families, apart from that, we
evacuated the area before we went in, or during the first stages of
our operation there.
The actual clash happened when two separate forces combined from an
infantry platoon, two very close one to another, but on two sides of
a certain house, a certain row of houses. One of the forces was hit
by what we call an 'explosive charges arena' that was preplanned and
set in order to harm our troops. The other one was actually targeted
by rifles, submachine guns from several places, like windows, roofs.
They caught this small group of soldiers, six or seven of them, in a
yard, a small courtyard neighboring several house around it. Again it
was simultaneous attack and immediately most of the soldiers were hit
and fell. The Palestinian terrorist snipers actually shot them later
one by one.
We understand that along with the explosives arena there was a
suicide bomber - we found remains of his body on the walls around the
area of the clash.
We believe that there were something like 20 gunmen, 20 Palestinian
terrorists there. They dragged two or three of the bodies to a
neighboring house, that collapsed minutes later as we understand,
because of the blast from the explosives arena and it took us time to
find those three soldiers as we actually did, under the ruins of this
house. Again we feel deep sorrow, and send our condolences to the
families.
We shall continue to fulfill our missions, and try and do that with
minimum harm to civilian life there, despite the fact that the
Palestinians actually try to drag us deeper into those areas in which
the civilian population is living.
Briefly, I would like to sum up the events in the north today, up on
the northern border, about an hour and a half of shooting again, this
has become a daily habit. In Mount Dov and the northern parts of the
Golan heights, they hit this time a Druse village, and launched 5
Katyushas, 122 mm. Rockets. Also, a Katyusha fell very close to an
Jewish/Israeli village. I will not mention the names of course not to
benefit the Hizbullah or the Palestinian organization that actually
shot those Katyushas.
Nasrallah today kept up with his disinformation efforts. The newest
piece that I heard is that, unfortunately we had a car accident in
the Caesarea area in which we lost six lives. Four of them were
soldiers. He announced today that those four soldiers were actually
killed along the Lebanese border by Hizbullah fire, and we dragged
their bodies to Caesarea area in order to make to cover it up. That
sums up my presentation. I'm ready to take some questions.
Q: I just wanted a couple more details on the ambush situation that
you described. You mentioned that the Palestinians dragged some of
the injured or wounded IDF soldiers into a house. Why would they do
that?
A: I guess they wanted to gain possession of the bodies and then
maybe to exchange, or to kind of blackmail. You know - we will give
you the bodies of the soldiers if you will do that and that. It was
so close that_ our soldiers that were not hit were actually so close
that they could put a stop to it.
Q: Can you tell me what happened after that? Were all these 20 or so
gunmen involved in the ambush, were they killed?
A: Several of them ran away, escaped, and we believe that several of
them were hit, from nearby roofs or windows and so on.
Q: Considering what has happened today, how long do you think the
Israeli troops will have to stay, has this extended the mission?
A: Personally I've said twice already, at least two days in a row,
that we hope tonight to finish our mission there; we control the
camp. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, the resistance was beyond
our expectations, so it took us more time. And again, in order to be
very careful with what remained there of the civilian population, we
felt we were restricted as to our means and methods. It will take us
some more time; I cannot be specific, whether it will be 12 or 36
hours. But it is a matter of hours.
Q: You mentioned that there were 23 terror attacks from Jenin. Is
that from September 2000?
A: Yes, during the time we describe as the armed conflict.
Q: About the explosives part of what happened in Jenin - you claim
the bodies were dragged in and then the building collapsed when the
bodies where inside?
A: So we understand. We haven't yet had a deep and precise
debriefing, but we'll do that.
Q: How many Israeli soldiers were operating in the refugee camp? And
you talked about means and methods. How have those means and methods
changed [as a result of the attack today]?
A: The first question I cannot answer. As to the second one: I'm not
sure they will change, because the basic assumption is that we are
operating in a civilian neighborhood. That means we are not able
to
use, for instance, air power, air strikes; we will not use them, at
least for now. I'm not aware of any change in the methods.
Q: You said that there are no air strikes on Jenin? There have been
lots of reports of using helicopters.
A: We are using helicopters for close support; but what I meant was
jet planes with much larger firepower.
Q: Are you planning any further withdrawals tonight or tomorrow from
any areas in the West Bank?
A: I cannot answer that. I am not aware of any political guidance to
the military yet.
Q: How many Israeli soldiers have been killed in Jenin and how many
have been injured? Can you give me the number of Palestinian
casualties?
A: We assess the number of Palestinian casualties at around 100 in
Jenin. The total in the Judea and Samaria area I cannot assess. I do
not know the exact number of Israeli soldiers that were killed there,
but I can make a calculation: 22 - 13 today plus 9 before.
I would like to make several remarks:
First, we are well aware from our officers in the field there, in
Jenin, that the Palestinians actually refused our offers to assist
them with humanitarian aid concerning the burial of bodies. We do
have our information that they were ordered to leave the situation as
is in order to manipulate and to put into the headlines the fact that
this was a "massacre."
Secondly, I brought with me several examples of the explosives vests
that we found in several depots in the various areas of Judea and
Samaria in which we operated. These are only examples. We have many
more. This is the way they do it. We found also wigs that would make
it easier for them to penetrate our settlements or towns. We found
IDF uniforms and we found yarmulkes, skullcaps, which Jewish people
wear on their heads.
What I would like to show you in addition, with your permission, is a
short movie that we have made from various depots that we have found,
explosive labs, ammunition depots and so forth.
[A movie is shown. The following appears on the screen:]
Ramallah - Mukata'a compound - arms - ammunition - sniper rifle -
anti tank weapons - RPG launcher - mortar shells.
Salfit - explosive lab for the production of pipe bombs.
Bethlehem - ammunition - rifles.
Nablus - explosive lab.
Bethlehem - Explosive charges right below the pavement, just outside
the Church of Nativity, ready to explode.
Ramallah - mosque - ammunition and explosives for bomber vests.
Kalkiliya - booby-trapped car - car was exploded by sappers.
Ramallah - ammunition depot - assault rifles - RPG grenades -
missiles.
Tulkarm - explosives.
Jenin - explosive laboratory - homemade rifles - several lathes for
the production of rifles and shells.
Three remarks:
1. It is not only the dead corpses they refuse to evacuate, but
also wounded people - they would not allow us. They would shoot at
medics who tried to assist.
2. The fact that there is such a strong resistance, and the fact
that we are so much slower then expected in getting in, actually
proves that there is not the slightest element of massacre, as they
tried to describe it.
3. We actually should not have been there in the first place, but
those elements that you have seen here made it impossible for us to
ignore it anymore. That is why we are there. We feel it is the only
way we can actually prevent terrorism in Tel Aviv, Netanya,
Jerusalem, Hadera and so on.
Q: I just would like to know - at the beginning there were civilians;
are there still civilians in the refugee camp?
A: Yes.
Q: But I heard from people who have been phoning to them - they
didn't dare to go out. I mean, I heard it from people living close to
the camp. In the camp there was no contact. Also there was shooting
whenever loudspeakers called on people to come out of the house. Can
you comment on that?
A: I can tell you it is a war going on there and we are aiming, we
are shooting only at the sources of fire that shoot at us. The
loudspeakers are not quiet for a second, I guess. They actually keep
repeating for the people who wouldn't like to be hurt to come out
with their hands up. We check civilians, we do not hold them. We will
let them go. Men will be checked if they have any kind of
"background" that makes us suspicious, and what you heard is actually
a twisted description. This is the way we work. That is exactly why
it takes so long.
Q: Inaudible (Why don't the people come out?)
A: They are probably afraid. They have gunmen inside, and military
outside. They are stuck in the middle. That is the basic reason why
the Palestinian terrorists have evacuated themselves to this area: in
order to create a sheltered zone for them to operate freely.
Q: Can I get a quick clarification. Were you saying earlier you were
allowing ambulances to go into Jenin, but that the Palestinians are
refusing? Is that what you said?
A: Yes, and not only ambulances. We offered them assistance to bury
their dead, but they actually clashed with us and we found refusal
from them. They don't want any kind of aid, not even humanitarian
aid.
Q: (inaudible)
A: (translated from Hebrew) We know they have refused aid concerning
burial of the bodies of terrorists, for reasons best known to
themselves. Our assessment is that, by keeping all the bodies there,
they are trying to create the impression that there was a massacre
there, and to draw parallels with Sabra and Shatilla.