Israel pledged today to co-operate with a UN mission to investigate its devastating assault on the Jenin refugee camp and said it had nothing to hide in the face of Palestinian accusations of a massacre.
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A Palestinian woman argues with two Israeli soldiers during a curfew in the Old City of Bethlehem, as Israeli forces continue to surround the Church of Nativity compound. Photo: Reuters
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In a resolution, sponsored by the United States and adopted unanimously by its 15 members, the council also expressed concern at the "dire humanitarian situation" and emphasised the urgency of the need for access for medical and humanitarian organisations.
Palestinians said they hoped the UN decision would lead to an international criminal trial of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat has set up a special committee to investigate Israeli action.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports the 10-member committee of inquiry will collect and document evidence of "war crimes" in the West Bank, particularly the towns of Jenin, Nablus and Bethlehem.
The committee will coordinate with the international community over the implementation of UN resolution 1405, adopted yesterday.
Mr Hannan Asfour, the Palestinian minister for non-governmental organisations, was named as chairman of the committee which will include Palestinian ministers, human rights activists, academics and lawyers.
A Palestinian claim that hundreds were killed in a "massacre" at the Jenin camp has been vigorously denied by Israel which has said "dozens, not hundreds" of Palestinians died in the heavy fighting along with 23 Israeli soldiers.
"We have nothing to hide and we will gladly co-operate with this UN inquiry," said Mr Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Mr Sharon.
A spokesman for the US President said Mr Bush wants the facts to come out about Jenin.
"He called for transparency. He wants the facts to be found", spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer said.
Israel rejected an offer from President Yasser Arafat to try the suspected killers of an Israeli cabinet minister in a Palestinian court. Mr Arafat made the suggestion as he seeks a way to end Israel's three-week-old siege of his Ramallah compound.
Delegates at the United Nations voted unanimously last night to send a fact-finding team to the Jenin camp.
The United States drafted the UN resolution after first threatening to veto an Arab-drafted measure calling for a formal UN investigation of alleged massacres in the Jenin camp.
Israel has denied carrying out a massacre in a West Bank camp it has described as a hornets nest of terrorists.
The stench of rotting bodies still wafts from rubble in the flattened heart of the camp, the scene of the fiercest fighting in Israel's West Bank offensive, unleashed on March 29th after suicide bombings killed scores of Israelis.
The army withdrew from Jenin city and the neighbouring camp yesterday as violence flared in the Gaza Strip, where six Palestinians, including a suicide bomber, were reported killed.
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