The United Nations has "not forgotten" about the violent events in the Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank town of Jenin in April, and will be issuing its report on them in the coming two weeks, the UN Middle East envoy said today.
However Terje Roed-Larsen told a seminar on peace in the Middle East that he could not comment on the contents of the report before it was issued.
"I have actually spent many hours in New York discussing this issue, and the secretary general will shortly release a report analysing what happened in Jenin. It is very much on our agenda," he said.
Mr Roed-Larsen said the report would both address humanitarian issues arising from the Israelis' refusal to allow aid organisations into the refugee camp, and the presence of armed Palestinians in Jenin at the time of the Israeli assault.
The Palestinians have accused Israeli forces of committing war crimes and massacring civilians during the nine days they spent in the camp, up until April 12th.
Israel has repeatedly and strenuously denied such accusations, insisting that about 50 people, mostly Palestinian fighters, died in pitched battles that also left 23 of their soldiers dead.
Human rights investigators said there was no evidence of a massacre but said the army may have committed acts that could be qualified as war crimes.
An attempt to send a UN fact-finding team to the spot was blocked by Israel.
Touring the camp three weeks after the raid, Mr Roed-Larsen denounced Israel for blocking aid to the wounded in Jenin, saying it was "totally unacceptable that the government of Israel for 11 days did not allow search and rescue teams to come."
"This is morally repugnant," the UN envoy told reporters at the time.
Referring to these comments on Thursday, Mr Roed-Larsen said his criticism "was not related to the way the battle was conducted" but because aid organisations were not allowed to enter the camp immediately afterwards.
AFP
