On April 3 , 2002 , following the Passover massacre on March 27 which killed 30 Israeli civilians and wounded as many as 143 , the IDF began a major military operation in the Jenin refugee camp , a city which , according to Israel , had " served as a launching site for numerous terrorist attacks against both Israeli civilians and Israeli towns and villages in the area " . The fighting , which lasted eight days and resulted in the deaths of 52 Palestinians ( including 14 civilians , according to the IDF , and 22 civilians , according to HRW ) and 23 Israeli soldiers , has been interpreted quite differently by Israelis and Palestinians . In the aftermath of the fighting , chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat claimed that the IDF had killed 500 Palestinians and accused Israel of committing a " massacre " . Early news publications , following both IDF estimates of 200 Palestinians killed and Palestinian estimates of 500 Palestinians killed , reported hundreds of Palestinian deaths and repeated claims that a massacre had taken place . Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International later found that no massacre had taken place , although both organizations charged the IDF with war crimes and human rights violations . The United Nations similarly dismissed claims that hundreds of Palestinians had been killed as unsubstantiated , a finding which was widely interpreted and reported as rejecting claims of a " massacre "
Passover massacre
Passover massacre
Media coverage of the Arab–Israeli conflict