A UN fact-finding mission inquiring into an alleged massacre perpetrated by Israeli forces at a refugee camp in Jenin may not go ahead after a series of objections by Israel.
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Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
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But it is now thought possible that a formal UN investigation may be launched, if the Israelis fail to agree to the mission within the next 24 hours.
The fact-finding team has been stranded in Geneva as Israel blocked the mission for the fouth time yesterday, having originally agreed in principle to the investigation.
Israel denies there was any massacre in the refugee camp during its assault, which it says was intended to root out militants as part of an offensive launched across the West Bank on March 29th following Palestinian suicide attacks.
Mr Kieran Prendergast, the UN under-secretary general for political affairs, said that since the dispute with Israel will apparently "not be resolved any time soon, the secretary general is minded to disband the team and I have so informed the council."
Mr Annan said last night he thought "other capitals, including Washington, were trying to find a way out of the impasse," but said he intended to make a final decision within 24 hours.
The prospect of a formal UN investigation was raised in the Israelimedia today. "We must expect that the Security Council, under pressure from the Arab countries, will be called upon to decide on a commission of inquiry," said Israel's UN Ambassador Yehuda Lancry.
But Mr Lancry told army radio he was confident Washington, Israel's main ally, would come to the rescue. "We trust in the United States and its commitments vis-a-vis Israel to oppose such an initiative," he said.
The possibility of a new UN drew defiant responses from officials israeli officials.
"It is out of the question that we accept a commission of inquiry," said Justice Minister Mr Meir Sheetrit.
"But we are ready to accept the arrival of a mission if the conditions that we presented to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan are accepted," he told Israeli state radio.
The United States, however, favour keeping the mission alive, diplomats said. "They want to breathe life into a corpse," said one envoy at the United Nations in New York.
An Israeli security cabinet statement said the United Nations had failed to meet Israeli terms for the Jenin mission.
Foreign Minister Mr Shimon Peres has said Israel's main condition for allowing in the fact-finding team was that Israel should decide which Israeli witnesses would testify to it.
An Israeli political source said the government wanted guarantees that witnesses would be immune from any war crimes prosecution arising from their testimony.
Fifty-two people have been confirmed killed in the Jenin camp but Palestinian doctors say hundreds more civilians may have been killed, many in homes razed by bulldozers during fighting.
"Disbanding the mission would amount to collusion in the Israeli crime and is a flagrant violation of international law," said Mr Mohammed Rashid, an aide to Mr Arafat.
Palestinians say the longer the delay, the harder it will be to find evidence of what happened at the camp.
A US medical rights group yesterday released a preliminary assessment of Palestinian casualties at Jenin, saying they did not point to a massacre but showed an urgent need for an inquiry and protection of forensic evidence.
"There is a strong basis to believe there were severe delays in enabling wounded people to reach a medical facility," Boston-based Physicians for Human Rights added in a report that put Palestinian deaths at least 45 and injuries at 201.
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