Operation Defensive Shield was a large scale ground operation conducted by the Israeli Defence Forces at April 2002 after the massacre at Park hotel.

Background

At September 2000 the Palestinian launched a wide campaign of terror and violence. During that campaign, called the Al-Aqsa Intifada, Yasser Arafat ordered to realse all terrorist and launch a wave of suicide bomber attacks against Israeli civilians.

The bloodiest month was March 2002, where more the 100 Israeli were murdered in suicide bombing attack and thousands were injured. The terror attacks were done rapidly, about 2-3 per day.

Following the Passover massacre (Tevah Leil-HaSeder) at Park hotel Netanya on the 28.3.2002 - many felt that the Palestinian terrorism become an existional threat. Following that day, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon have ordered a large ground campaign against terror. Many Israeli reservists were drafted by emergency order (Tzav Shmone) but more Israeli voluntered willingly to be in a front line of "The war on our home" - as the Israeli public often calls the 2000-2003 events.

Goals

Operation Defensive goals were to destroy the terror infrastructure and arrest all terrorists who oporate from the West Bank. Secondary goal was to capture Palestinian documentation and gathering intelligence on the terrorist organizations. This goal was achieved highly than expected. Israeli soldier captured documents that prove that PLO and Arafat were sponsering terrorism and encourage it.

The immidiate goal was to stop the bloodiest terror wave and give some peace and quiet to the citizens of Israel.

The Operation

Israeli infantry troops, seldom accompanied by tanks, APCs and Caterpillar D9 armoured bulldozers, swarmed into the Palestinian cities of Jenin, Nablus, Tul Karem, Qalqiliya and Rammalla. The troops checked each house and discovered a lot of weapons, ammunition and explosives - include some bombs lab.

Towns were major battle took place:

About 150 Palestinian terrorist were killed and thousands of Palestinian were arrested. The IDF has captured lot of illegal weapons and bombs. Many important were discovered and later were used by the Israeli Shin-Bet and the Israeli SF to fight against terrorist cells who survived the operation.

The Battle of Jenin

The hardest battle was in Jenin - were Palestinian terrorist honeycombed the refugee camp and wired it with explosives. Jenin was rightfully known as the "capital of suicide bombers" and was a large center of terrorist activity. In order not to kill innocent civilians, the IDF decided not to carpet-bomb the camp using aircrafts and artillery and sent infantry to fight from house to house and pinpoint out the terrorists. This was very risky desicion and the Israeli army paid heavy price for his humanity and high moral status. In one ambush 13 Israeli reservist solider were killed from snipers and explosives. In order to not risk any more lives, IDF began a massive usage of armoured bulldozers. The armoured Caterpillar D9 cleaned house after house, as IDF soldier advance through out the camp. Soldiers have called civilian to get out from each they're intend to raze. Civilian who went out unarmed were taken aside and remained safe. Most of the terrorist surrendered right after the heavy bulldozer shaked the building they barricaded in. Some were buried alive after the D9 accidently dentonated the wires that Palestinian set, causing the collapsing of the whole building. Islamic Jihad senior and the commander of Jenin, Mahmoud Tawalbe, was killed after a D9 rammmed a wall on top of him.

In al-Hawashin district the D9s razed the entire neighborhood because it was heavily booby-trapped and no footmen was able to walk there without getting hurt. Even Palestinian civilians were hurt by their own booby-traps, as Palestinian gunman admits in interview to Time Magazine. The fierce action ended the battle. Palestinian terrorist of Jenin surrendered and Israeli forces withdrew after international pressure.

Israel casulties were 23 soldiers dead and 75 wounded. Palestinians casulties were amount between 52-56 dead, most of them terrorists (according to Human Rights organization only 22 were civilians). Palestinian claimed that IDF commited a massacre of thousands in Jenin but these claims were refuted by the UN and the every Human Rights group that studied the battle. IDF UAV photos exposed a Palestinian mock funeral where the "corpse" started to walk and run as they accidently drop the coffin. The Palestinian lies on "massacre in Jenin" has fataly damaged Palestinian creditability and reliability. Jews condmended those lies as "bloody framing" (Alilot Dam) - antisemite lies accusing the Jews in murder, in order to incite a Pogrom (wave of violent rampage).

"There was no massacre (in Jenin)" Amnesty's military expert has determined. However, Human Rights reports concluded that Israeli methods taken in Jenin were "unpropotional use of excessive force" which caused "colletreal damage". There were also allegation of missconduct against serveral soldiers. Beside the great destruction, the reports condemned the use of Palestinian civilian as a "human shield".

IDF response to this charges can be found here. It says that the usage of bulldozers to tear down houses was neccessary because they were heavily wired with explosives. Investagation that was conduct by Amnesty's military expert David Holley supports the IDF claims but was ignored in the report. The IDF launched investagation against soldiers who were suspected at looting and misconduct. The IDF denied use of Palestinian civilian as a "human shield" but admited that soldier order Palestinians to knock over doors and call the people inside to surrender. The legality of this practice was given to the Israeli Supreme Court to determine.

The Battle of Nablus

In Nablus, Israeli foot soldiers swarmed the city and by going through the houses wall, they managed to keep their casulties low. In total, 78 terrorist were killed there and hundreds were arrested.

The Battles of Rammalla (Rammallah) and Bet Lehem

IDF Forces didn't counter much of resistence in Rammalla. While doing house-to-house searches, Israeli elite troops sieged the Mukataa (Arafat's compund) and exposed their a lot of illegal weapons and important documents. Bulldozers razed parts of the Mukataa.

During the battle, Palestinian's Fatah senior wanted terrorist have fled to Bet Lehem and barricaded themselves in the Church of the Nativity. After a long standoff, while Palestinian terrorist pilleged the Church and IDF sieged them - an agreement was reached and 13 terrorist were deported to Europe.

Result and Consquences

Only 29 Israeli soldier dies and 127 were wounded during Defensive Shield Operation. Evaluation done by external experts and politicians claimed that such an operation would cost at least 300 dead. The Israeli achievement of keeping casulties low was hailed by US military and was a proof that campaign against terror can be effective while keeping humanity and moral values.

Thousands of Palestinians were arrest and at leadt 400 wanted suspected were captured during the operaion. About 200 Palestinians died during the operation, the large majority were terrorists and armed gunmen. Tons of weapons were captured by the IDF and many bomb-labs were destroyed. In Jenin, IDF discovered a torture chamber used by the Palestinian terrorists to enfore their will.

Israeli soldier captured documents that prove that PLO and Arafat were sponsering terrorism and encourage it. Those documents played major part in the exposure of Arafat's double-game tactics and support of terrorism. Following that, and the siege over his Mukataa compund, Arafat was delegitmized and the US demanded his replacement as a condition to continue the peace process.

Beside that, a lot of valuable intelligence was gathered. This information enabled Israeli Security Forces to thwart terrorist attacks and hunt down terror leaders.

Full data of casualties and captures

In the short range, the operation managed to stop the big terror wave and gave two quiets weeks to the weary citizens of Israel. The hardcore terror cells of Jenin and Nablus were terminated and the hard resistence those cities offered was broken.

However, due to international pressure, IDF troops pulled out from the cities before they managed to clean them 100%. The result was that terror cells still remained and after a month of rebuilding Israel suffered again from terrorist attacks.

Therefore Israel launched Operation Determined Path (Dereh Nehusha) which completed the destruction of terror infrastructure. This operation was a massive deployment of small units and rapid CT commando raids. The result of this efforts were the elimination of Hamas infrastructure (except from Nablus and Hebron) and the elimination of the Islamic Jihad. Those terrorist groups were damaged so badly and couldn't do major bombings without Arafat's Fatah help and support.

On the total, Operaion Defensive Shield was a success, its goals were achieved, it caused a fatal damage to the West Bank's terrorist infrastructure and it managed to decrease the number of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.

Operation Defensive Shield

Background

Goals

The Operation

The Battle of Jenin

The Battle of Nablus

The Battles of Rammalla (Rammallah) and Bet Lehem

Result and Consquences

External Links

The Battle of Jenin

Pictures Galleries