A European envoy has come down hard on Israel over the ‘proportionality’ of the force it deploys as international envoys toured the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank following a deadly raid.
His remarks reiterated what UN chief Antonio Guterres who on Thursday told reporters ‘there was an excessive force used by Israeli forces’ in its 48-hour operation, the largest Israel has staged in the occupied Palestinian territory for years.
It included air raids and armoured bulldozers tearing through streets.
Africa Today News, New York reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly referred to the refugee camp as a ‘terrorist nest’ because of the presence of Palestinian armed fighters.
European Union representative to the Palestinian territories Sven Kuehn von Burgsdorff made his comments as he led a delegation of UN officials and diplomats from 25 countries to the camp in the northern occupied West Bank.
Read Also: Israel Launches Raid On West Bank, Kills 10 Palestinians
‘We are concerned about the deployment of weaponry and weapons systems which question the proportionality of the military during the operation,’ Kuehn von Burgsdorff said of the operation, in which 12 Palestinians – including five children – were killed.
More than 140 others were wounded and 30 are in serious condition, according to the Palestinian health ministry. One Israeli soldier was killed during the raid.
‘The military assault on Jenin was painful. What happened is a violation of international law,’ von Burgsdorff said.
‘This cycle of violence has to end, it cannot continue. If there is no political solution to the conflict, we are going to stand here in a week’s time, in a month’s time, in a year’s time, with nothing changed.’
As the delegation toured the camp, residents peered out of holes left in the walls by Israeli rockets, and local authorities tested a new camp-wide alarm system to warn of future raids.
Last Wednesday, three independent human rights experts said the Israeli air attacks and ground actions in Jenin ‘amount to egregious violations of international law and standards on the use of force and may constitute a war crime’.