UN report refutes claims of massacre in Jenin

The UN report released yesterday on last spring's Israeli military offensive in the West Bank refuted Palestinian claims that 500 people were massacred in the city of Jenin but revealed that nearly 500 civilians were killed there and in other cities due to Israel's "disproportionate" and "indiscriminate" use of force.

A total of 497 Palestinians were killed and 1,477 wounded during the course of Israel's March 29th to May 7th Operation Defensive Shield. In Nablus, the city with the highest toll, 70 to 80 people were killed, 50 of them civilians. In Jenin there were 52 fatalities, half of whom may have been civilians. In both of these cities, there are densely populated refugee camps where there was fierce resistance to the Israeli advance.

The 16-page document, plus testimony and annexes, was compiled under the direction of the UN secretary general, Mr Kofi Annan. He was asked to investigate these events by the General Assembly after Israel refused to admit or co-operate with a UN fact-finding mission. The team, led by former Finnish president Mr Martti Ahtissari, was disbanded after Israel raised objections to its composition and mandate. The information presented in the report was submitted by the Palestinian Authority, UN bodies with a West Bank presence, UN member-states and human rights organisations. The scope of the investigation was expanded to cover what happened in the whole of the West Bank rather than Jenin alone.

The report described the period leading up to the launch of the Israeli operation. On March 8th and 9th, "18 Israelis were killed in two separate Palestinian attacks and 48 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli raids that followed." When, on March 27th, 28 Israelis were killed in city of Netanya, the Israeli government approved a full-scale military offensive which began on March 29th with the occupation of Ramallah and the seizure of the compound of the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat. By April 3rd, the six largest Palestinian cities and neighbouring towns, villages and refugee camps had been occupied by Israeli tanks, armoured troop carriers and regular army units. The report stated that the Israelis imposed round-the-clock curfews on a million people; 600,000 lived under total curfews lasting a week which were lifted briefly then reimposed, while 220,000 suffered uninterrupted curfews of longer duration. Israel declared reoccu- pied localities "closed military areas", restricted the movement of medical and humanitarian personnel, barred the entry of international aid, human rights monitors and journalists. "As a result, the civilian populations of the cities suffered severe hardships, compounded in some places by the fighting," the report said. Closures and curfews "exacted a substantial humanitarian price from the civilian population" exacerbated by cuts in water, electricity and telephones and shortages of food and medical supplies. The restrictions also had a "devastating economic impact" by shutting down the Palestinian economy.

The report criticised both sides for "violence that placed civilians in harm's way". Palestinian militants were blamed for sheltering in refugee camps and cities and for, in the case of Jenin, booby-trapping civilian homes to target invading Israeli troops.

Israel was criticised for "using heavy weaponry in Palestinian civilian areas", destroying civilian infrastructure, private property and Palestinian Authority institutions and installations of its security forces. The report cited eye witnesses who said Israeli forces compelled Palestinian civilians to act as "human shields" during house-to-house searches for militants. Although Israel denied its troops engaged in this activity, the army command issued an order on May 5th forbidding the use of "living shields".

The secretary general's report made the point that "terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians continued in the aftermath of Operation Defensive Shield, and most Palestinian cities endured further incursions ... up to the end of the period under consideration in this report."

This report was issued the day after the commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency, Mr Peter Hansen, made an urgent appeal on behalf of the Palestinians, who, he said, are facing a "crisis of such dimensions that it threatens everyone in the region".