Battle of Jenin (2002)

Battle of Jenin
	Part of Operation Defensive Shield and the Second Intifada
	; Aerial photograph of the battle area in Jenin, taken two days after the battle ended
Date	April 1–11, 2002 (Israeli troop withdrawal began April 18)
Location	Jenin, West Bank
Result	Israeli victory
Belligerents
Israel Israel Defense Forces;	Fatah Preventive Security Force; Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades; Tanzim; Hamas; Palestinian Islamic Jihad; Independent Palestinian mujahid factions
Commanders and leaders
Yehuda Yedidya; Eyal Shlein; Ofek Buchris	Hazem Qabha †; Zakaria Zubeidi; Mahmoud Tawalbe †
Strength
1 reserve infantry brigade; 2 regular infantry battalions; Commando teams; 12 D9 armored bulldozers	Some 200 – several hundreds
Casualties and losses
23 dead; 52 wounded	52 dead (at least 27 militants and 22 civilians) per HRW; 53 dead (48 militants and 5 civilians) per the IDF
	Dozens of houses destroyed according to the IDF; according to HRW at least 140 buildings completely destroyed, severe damage caused 200 additional buildings rendered uninhabitable or unsafe.

The Battle of Jenin, took place in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank on April 1–11, 2002. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) entered the camp, and other areas under the administration of the Palestinian Authority, during the Second Intifada, as part of Operation Defensive Shield. The Jenin camp was targeted after Israel reported that it had "served as a launch site for numerous terrorist attacks against both Israeli civilians and Israeli towns and villages in the area."

The IDF employed infantry, commando forces, and assault helicopters. Palestinian militants had prepared for a fight, booby trapping the camp, and after an Israeli column walked into an ambush, the army began to rely more heavily on the use of armored bulldozers to clear out booby traps laid inside the camp. On April 11, Palestinian militants began to surrender. Israeli troops began withdrawing from the camp on April 18.

On April 7, senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat suggested to CNN that some 500 Palestinians had been killed in the camp. Five days later, when the fighting stopped, PA Secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman told UPI that the number was in the thousands. Stories of hundreds of civilians being killed in their homes as they were demolished spread throughout international media. Subsequent investigations found no evidence to substantiate claims of a massacre, and official totals from Palestinian and Israeli sources confirmed between 52 and 54 Palestinians, including civilians, and 23 IDF soldiers as having been killed in the fighting.

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