WASHINGTON: Israeli forces committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, probably including war crimes, during their 10-day invasion of Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, a leading rights watchdog reported on Friday.

The report found many examples of indiscriminate and excessive force used by the IDF in the densely populated camp, which housed some 14,000 people before the offensive began Apr. 3. It said the IDF used Palestinian as human shields in violation of international humanitarian law.

“The abuses we documented in Jenin are extremely serious, and in some cases appear to be war crimes,” said Peter Bouckaert, head of the three-person investigative team that first entered the camp Apr. 19. “Criminal investigations are first and foremost the duty of the Israeli government, but the international community needs to ensure that meaningful accountability occurs.”

The government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, wanted the mission to investigate how Jenin had become a stronghold for Palestinian terrorists. Amnesty International, which also had fielded a team to Jenin, strongly denounced the demands on Thursday. “Failure by any party to cooperate with a UN fact-finding mission should never be a cause to abandon an investigation the UN has established and the international community is continuing to call for,” the London-based group said.

Other human rights groups expressed concern that Israel’s effective veto of the mission could set a precedent for other countries wishing to avoid scrutiny by Security Council-authorised fact-finding missions.

The HRW report, which had findings similar to those of Amnesty’s recent mission, said it could confirm only 52 Palestinian dead. It acknowledged, however, that more bodies might be found in the rubble of the more than 340 buildings that were either completely levelled or severely damaged by Israeli bulldozers, tanks, and rockets.

Contrary to Israeli reports, HRW said it found no evidence that Palestinian fighters had used civilians as shields or had tried to prevent the civilian population in the camp from fleeing, although it noted that they used indiscriminate tactics that endangered civilians, such as planting booby traps and intermingling with the civilian population during the conflict to avoid capture.

The report, based on interviews of more than 100 camp residents, as well as victims, eyewitnesses, international aid and medical workers, found that IDF soldiers did use Palestinian civilians as shields, a serious violation of international humanitarian law. Israeli troops forced Palestinians at gunpoint, to accompany IDF troops during their searches of homes, to enter homes, open doors, and perform other dangerous tasks. Soldiers in one case, used the shoulders of a 14-year-old boy and his father to rest their rifles as they fired at targets for several hours.”—Dawn/InterPress Service.