After a bloody suicide attack in Netanya in March 2002, the "Nachshon Brigade"`s emergency unit was ordered to Jenin. This Palestinian refugee camp had earned a reputation as home and basis of many Palestianian suicide bombers. The brigade was assigned to find and arrest potential suicide attackers and to destroy their workshops and laboratories. When the soldiers entered the camp they met well prepared Palestinian fighters. The operation escalated into heavy house-to-house. 13 Israelis and 52 Palestinians, among them 22 civilians were killed. The army was accused of unreasonably brutal pratices against obviously univolved bystanders. Rumours spread about massacres of hundreds of Palestinians but could not be proved.