Reuters Removes False Claim That Jenin Refugee Camp Was ‘Largely Destroyed’ In 2002

July 3, 2023

Following communication from CAMERA’s Israel office, Reuters today deleted the false claim that the Jenin refugee camp “was largely destroyed by Israeli troops during a previous incursion two decades ago” (“Israeli troops and drones hit Jenin in major West Bank operation“).

In fact, as was acknowledged during in a CAMERA-prompted March 29, 2004 National Public Radio correction:

In a story about a Palestinian film festival last week, Julie McCarthy said that the Jenin refugee camp had been “largely destroyed” during an Israeli military action in 2002. A United Nations report noted that while the center of the camp had been “totally destroyed,” the extent of the destruction for the camp as a whole was 10 percent. 

Israeli soldiers in Jenin in Operation Defensive Shield, 2002 (Photo by IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)

Indeed, a report of the European Union included in the end of the U.N. “Report of the Secretary-General prepared pursuant to General Assembly resolution ES-10/10” said of the destruction to the Jenin refugee camp resulting from the 2002 Israeli military incursion:
  • 10 percent of the camp totally destroyed
  • The center of the refugee camp has been totally levelled. The area has a diameter of about 200 m and a surface of about 16,000 [sq] m, with approximately 100 buildings totally destroyed.
The updated version of the story no longer contains the unfounded claim.

 

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