Jenin - 'A Remarkable achievement unprecedented in modern warfare'

 (With thanks to Israel National News)

Colonel Richard Kemp, the former commander of the British military forces in Afghanistan, spoke recently about the complete avoidance of civilian fatalities over two days in Jenin. This constitutes a "remarkable achievement by the IDF," which is "probably unprecedented in modern warfare."

"To conduct an operation of such intensity in an urban area without killing any uninvolved civilians at all is a remarkable achievement by the IDF and probably unprecedented in modern warfare. Casualty ratios in most such operations have often been 3 to 5 civilians killed for every fighter, and that is by Western armies that do their best to avoid civilian casualties and adhere to the laws of war," he explained, adding: "I doubt any other army in the world would be able to achieve what the IDF did in Jenin."

Col. Kemp noted that avoiding civilian casualties in a terrorist stronghold such as Jenin "is even more remarkable given that the terrorists in Jenin hid behind the civilian population, used human shields and deliberately tried to lure the IDF into killing civilians in order to attract world condemnation."

Kemp responded to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who told reporters at the UN that Israel used “excessive force” : "Guterres is wrong to accuse the IDF of using disproportionate force as the facts very clearly show. Proportionality in warfare only refers to the killing and wounding of innocent civilians in relation to the military objective. No innocent civilians were killed. We don’t know how many uninvolved civilians were wounded by IDF fire, but the death rate strongly indicates that IDF action was the opposite of disproportionate."

Sven Kuehn von Burgsdorff, the European Union (EU) representative to Palestinian Authority-assigned territories, went even further than the UN Secretary-General, calling the operation a "violation of international law." In response to Burgsdorff's accusation, Col. Kemp said: "Burgdsdorff needs to explain which international laws were violated by the IDF. The IDF used no weapons or tactics in Jenin that are banned under international law.