Palestinians demand inquiry into Jenin refugee camp 'massacre'

Reuters
Last updated: 16-04-02, 18:48


A Palestinian cabinet minister has demanded an inquiry into allegations that Israeli troops massacred Palestinians in Jenin refugee camp, scene of the fiercest fighting in Israel's West Bank offensive.

Mr Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian minister for planning and international co-operation, said close to 500 residents of the West Bank town were killed as Israeli troops swept through the city, sealed off to outsiders during the 12-day incursion.

At a conference in Cyprus, Mr Shaath also accused Israeli authorities of removing corpses in refrigerated trucks to disguise what happened.

Israel says around 70 Palestinian militants were killed in fighting in Jenin to root out Palestinian militants targeting civilians in suicide attacks.

Included among Israeli casualties were 13 soldiers ambushed last week.

But pressure mounted on Israel as aid agencies said today that thousands of Palestinians in Jenin still lack food, water and medical supplies.

"There are still thousands of people in the [Jenin] camp who have obviously had no food, water or sustenance for quite some time," Mr Rene Aquarone, spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said.

Mr Aquarone said UNRWA had tried to distribute food and medical supplies yesterday, and although Israeli authorities allowed a truck to enter the camp, it was not permitted to unload.

""The Israeli army took six days to complete its massacre in Jenin and six days to clean it up...there is a crime here demanding an immediate investigation," Mr Shaath told a United Nations conference in Nicosia in support of the Middle East peace process.

There were also eyewitness accounts of Israeli summary executions with "at least" 60 to 70 Palestinian victims, he said.

"The massacre at Jenin is chilling, it is horrible. It is a war crime," said Mr Shaath.

Petitioned by an Israeli human rights group, the Israeli Supreme Court has issued an injunction to prevent authorities removing bodies in refrigerated cars, Mr Shaath said.

Mr Shaath said Israel had also sought rabbinical permission for burials in unmarked graves in Israel, away from Palestinian areas, in a bid to manipulate the death toll.

Mr Shaath likened Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's version of events in Jenin to his denial of any responsibility for the 1982 slaughter of Palestinians in Lebanon's Sabra and Shatila refugee camps by a pro-Israeli Lebanese Christian militia on the rampage.

"Sharon yesterday said that it was a lie, it never happened. He said exactly the same thing when he was accused of the Sabra and Shatila massacres in 1982."

Mr Sharon was defence minister when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982. A year later an Israeli inquiry found Mr Sharon bore indirect responsibility for the slaughter, during which Israeli troops ringed the camps.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, shuttling across the region since last week, reported progress today but hinted he might not achieve a mutually proclaimed ceasefire. He met Mr Sharon today and was due to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat tomorrow.