UN Watch RESPONSE
These accusations criticize Israel’s July 3, 2023 counterterrorism operation in the Jenin refugee camp known as Operation House and Garden. These statements by, among others, the GCC, Qatar, Iraq, and Mauritania, falsely accuse Israel of targeting Palestinian civilians, killing “dozens,” and “deporting” thousands of Palestinians from their homes.
The 48-hour Operation House and Garden was conducted in response to deadly terrorism being perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists from Jenin, including at least 50 shooting attacks in 2022 and 2023 and two rocket launchings the previous month.[1] Also in June 2023, eight Israeli soldiers were injured by an IED in Jenin during a routine arrest operation leading the Israeli army to deploy an Apache helicopter to extract them.[2]
The IDF carried out Operation House and Garden in an extremely precise manner to minimize casualties. As a result, only 12 Palestinians were killed, all of whom were militants affiliated with different Palestinian terror groups, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas.[3] The fact that some of these were under age 18 does not establish any violation by Israel as Qatar and the GCC suggest, but rather proves only that Palestinian terror groups cynically exploit Palestinian children by using child soldiers in violation of international law. One Israeli soldier was also killed.[4] Furthermore, while there were reports that some 4,000 Palestinians fled during the fighting, Israel did not order an evacuation and they returned when the fighting ended.[5]
During the raid, Israeli troops found some 1,000 IEDs, dozens of weapons manufacturing sites, underground tunnels including two which were located in a mosque, safe houses, and command and operation centers including an operational headquarters located near an UNRWA school.[6] Fighting took place in civilian areas resulting in damage to civilian infrastructure because the Palestinian terrorists embedded themselves in civilian areas. In particular, the IDF dug up some of the roads where it had intelligence about IEDs that could be detonated against troops.[7]
Military expert Col. Richard Kemp lauded the operation as a “remarkable achievement, probably unprecedented in modern warfare” where he explained that similar operations by Western armies have often resulted in casualty ratios of 3 to 5 civilians killed for every fighter. “I doubt any other army in the world would be able to achieve what the IDF did in Jenin,” Kemp concluded.[8]