Rula Amin: Devastation at Jenin camp

CNN's Rula Amin

JENIN, West Bank (CNN) -- CNN's Rula Amin has been inside the refugee camp in the West Bank town of Jenin, the scene of fierce battles between Israelis and Palestinians.

On Tuesday, Amin described what she saw inside the refugee camp:

AMIN: I'm standing here in one of the neighborhoods where obviously there has been fierce fighting. A large area has been bulldozed, and many of the houses have been knocked down, obviously by bulldozers or explosives. The houses I'm looking at have been badly, badly damaged.

We've seen families coming in to check their houses. Most of the people here have their scarves put around their nose and mouth. The smell is very bad. There are many bodies we've seen here still lying around, not retrieved.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO Sifting through the rubble: CNN's Sheila MacVicar reports (April 16) Play video

I went into one house. A woman took me to the house, and she said, "I want you to see what's in my house." I went inside, and there were five bodies. Some were covered with blankets; some were not. But it was obvious those people had been dead for a few days. They were in a state of decomposition. The faces were black. Flies were flying around. The smell was so bad. One of the journalists actually fainted when he smelled that smell.

There aren't many journalists here -- not many, but there are a few journalists. We all snuck in together behind Israeli tanks. And the scene is really a lot of destruction, a lot of devastation.

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CNN: Israeli officials have been saying that there is no sign obviously of any massacre; the Palestinians originally [called] it that, saying that hundreds of people were killed. Give us the latest information you have on the human toll.

AMIN: It seems that the longer it takes for people to get in the camp, the longer it is going to be to verify all the different accounts. The Palestinians are charging that Israeli soldiers carried out summary executions, that they shot people as they surrendered, that they have prevented ambulances from coming in. All these are very strong charges; they amount to a kind of war crime.

However, the [Israeli] army says, yes, the death toll is high, but there has been a fierce fight in Jenin and 23 Israeli soldiers have been killed in that fight. And obviously, the number of casualties is going to be high.

So there is no dispute that the number of casualties here is high. The dispute is how did these people die and who is more responsible. Palestinians are charging the number is over 500. Israelis put it at around 100 to 150. It's going to be very hard to tell.

We spoke to aid agencies, representatives who have been able to get inside the camp for the second day. They're telling us it's very hard to retrieve some of the bodies because they don't have the professional tools and skills to get bodies out from beneath the rubble.

CNN: What is the reaction there to the news that [Israeli Prime Minister] Ariel Sharon told President Bush that he would have the Israeli troops out of Jenin sometime within a week or so?

AMIN: The news actually doesn't seem to make a big difference to the people here, except for those who are outside the camp and who have lost touch with their families inside the camp. And they're trying desperately to get inside to see and check what happened to their houses and what happened to their families, like in terms of their sons. We've met many mothers in Jenin town who said they have lost contact with their sons. They don't know whether they are among the dead, or alive.

However, here and in Jenin, we're talking to people, and people are trying to get attention, the world's attention, to this camp. [Referring to] Colin Powell, we've heard many bitter statements saying, "How come the U.S. secretary of state is sympathizing with the Israeli suffering and not paying any attention to the Palestinian suffering?"

They're very desperate for some kind of attention to what happened here. They are looking actually for condemnation for whatever measures Israel took here. But so far they haven't been able to get that.