U.N. Weighs In On Jenin Allegations

A new U.N. report on Israel's attack on a Palestinian refugee camp last spring avoids calling the episode a massacre but faults Israel for using heavy weaponry and Palestinians for placing fighters among civilians.

"Of particular concern is the use, by combatants on both sides, of violence that placed civilians in harm's way," said the report by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to be released on Thursday.

The cautiously written survey does not make a judgment about whether a massacre, as some Arab officials charged, occurred during Israel's "Operation Defensive Shield" into Palestinian West Bank cities between March 29 and April 21.

But the long-awaited report - advance copies of which have already been given to Israeli and Palestinian officials - dismisses claims that as many as 500 people had died.

"A senior Palestinian Authority official alleged in mid-April that some 500 were killed, a figure that has not been substantiated in light of the evidence that has emerged," the report said.

The U.N. findings mirror those of Human Rights Watch, which has said its experts found nothing to support allegations that the Israeli army committed a massacre.

The U.N. report says 52 Palestinians died in Jenin, scene of the heaviest fighting, as many as half of them civilians, while Israel lost 23 soldiers over a 10-day period.

U.N. figures also showed that 497 Palestinians were killed from March 1 to May 7, during Israel's reoccupation of towns and cities once under Palestinian control.

That number is almost double the death toll of 262 reported in the Palestinian territories by the Red Crescent Society during that same time period.

Operation Defensive Shield was prompted by a March 27 suicide attack in the Israeli seaside town of Netanya, in which 28 people were killed and 140 injured.

The Israeli assault began on March 29 with an incursion into Ramallah, follow by Tulkarm, Qalqilya and Jenin and Nablus on April 3.

Using tanks, helicopter, gunships and bulldozers, the Israeli army attacked populated areas, causing severe hardships to civilians "compounded in some places by the extensive fighting that occurred during the operation," Annan said.

Jenin residents were under a curfew and had their water, electricity and telephones cut off for weeks, during which one in five ran short on food, the report said.

"There were also cases of Israeli forces not respecting the neutrality of medical and humanitarian workers and attacking ambulances," the report said, adding that humanitarian workers in many cases were unable to reach people in need for days.

As for the Palestinian fighters, Annan said both Israeli and Palestinian observers agreed the Jenin camp by April had some 200 armed men from the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Tanzim, Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

"The government of Israel has charged that from October 2000 to April 2002, 28 suicide attacks were planned and launched from the Jenin Camp," the report said.

Annan was asked to prepare the report after Israel blocked a U.N. fact-finding mission into Jenin in early May that had been authorized by the 15-member U.N. Security Council.

Palestinians then went to the 189-member General Assembly, which on May 7 called for a report by Annan into "events in Jenin and other Palestinian cities" based on publicly available information.

The report is based on documents in the public domain and information from officials of the U.N., the Palestinian Authority, private relief organizations, and five U.N. member states not including Israel, which did not participate because it felt the investigation from the beginning was being handled in a way that could have been more objective.

Some Arab envoys had hoped the report would produce evidence that could be used to press criminal charges against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon but the report appears to fall short of that.

It does refer to the 1949 Geneva Convention on the treatment of civilians in time of war and says Israel is obliged not to engage in acts of collective punishment, reprisals or the appropriation of property.

Palestinian authorities, the report said, are also required under international customary law to respect human rights and refrain from carrying out attacks against civilians and prevent groups "from engaging in such attacks."

Between March and May 7, Israel endured about 16 bombings, mostly suicide attacks, killing 100 people and wounding scores of others. During the same period, the Israeli Defense Forces conducted two waves of military incursions, including airstrikes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

At the same time, Israeli attacks on the Palestinian security forces and installations severely weakened their capacity to take action against militants, the report said.

"Militant groups stepped into this growing vacuum and increased their attacks on Israeli civilians," it said.