AMMAN, 30 March 2003 — The US military has been asking the Israeli Army for advice on fighting inside cities, and studying in particular fighting in the West Bank city of Jenin last April, it has emerged. Unnamed US and Israeli sources have confirmed that the American military asked for, and was given, details of Israeli tactics in built-up areas. There have been unconfirmed reports — quickly denied — that US troops trained with Israeli forces for street-to-street fighting. A US Defense official, who spoke to the Associated Press, confirmed the Pentagon had asked Israel for advice on fighting inside cities.
If the US Army believes the road to Baghdad lies through Jenin, there is reason to be concerned for Iraqi civilians. During fighting in the Jenin refugee camp last April, more than half the Palestinian dead were civilians. There was compelling evidence that Israeli soldiers deliberately targeted civilians, including Fadwa Jamma, a Palestinian nurse shot through the heart as she tried to treat a wounded man.
A 14-year-old boy was shot dead by an Israeli tank in a crowded street after the curfew was lifted. A Palestinian in a wheelchair was shot dead, and his body was then crushed under the tracks of an Israeli tank.
Israeli soldiers blocked ambulances from reaching the wounded and refused the Red Cross access. Using bulldozers, the Israeli Army demolished an entire neighborhood — home to around 800 Palestinian families — reducing it to dust.
Martin van Creveld, professor of military history and strategy at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, has told reporters that, following his advice to US Marines, the American military bought nine of the converted bulldozers used in the Jenin demolitions from Israel. Professor van Creveld said he gave advice to Marines last year in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He said he was questioned about Israeli tactics in Jenin, and told them that the giant D9 bulldozers, manufactured for civilian use in the US but fitted with armor plating in Israel, were one of the most useful weapons. Israeli troops at first found they could not get their tanks and armored vehicles into the narrow alleys of the refugee camp, so bulldozed wide swathes through houses to get them in. If the US military intends to use converted D9 bulldozers in Iraqi cities, there is cause for concern. When reporters got into the Jenin refugee camp, we found the fronts of houses neatly scythed off so the insides of the houses were visible from the street, with people’s belongings, sofas, beds, children’s toys, hanging precariously from half-collapsed floors. Israeli use of the bulldozers has not been limited to clearing the way for tanks. They have also been used in collective punishment, such as the destruction of an entire neighborhood.