'No massacre' at Jenin, says UN report

Israel said today that a new U.N. report on its assault in the Jenin refugee camp during a military offensive across the West Bank cleared up "misconceptions" that there had been a massacre.

Palestinian officials did not immediately comment on the report, which criticised Palestinians for placing fighters among civilians but did not say Israel committed a massacre, a charge made by Palestinians during the fighting.

Israel said it tried to avoid civilian casualties during its assault on the refugee camp in April, during a six-week offensive across the West Bank cities which it said was intended to root out militants behind suicide attacks.

"We understand that the report is absolutely categorical, there was no massacre and statements by the Palestinian leadership talking about hundreds of civilians that were killed were nothing more than atrocity propaganda," said Daniel Taub, a senior Foreign Ministry official.

"We think that these findings are extremely important both to clear up misconceptions about what happened in Jenin and also to pave the way to the possibility of restarting dialogue in the future."

The report by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, obtained by Reuters ahead of its official release, said it was a particular concern that combatants on both sides used violence that endangered civilians.

It said 52 Palestinians were killed in Jenin, as many as half of them civilians, and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed.

Annan was asked to prepare the report after Israel blocked a U.N. fact-finding mission into Jenin in early May that had been authorised by the 15-member U.N. Security Council. The report was compiled from public information.

Using tanks, helicopter gunships and bulldozers, the Israeli army attacked populated areas, causing severe hardships to civilians, the report said. It added that Israel prevented humanitarian and medical workers from reaching those in need.

Palestinian government officials were not immediately available for comment but Wael Qadan, a general director of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, questioned the U.N. figures.

He said his organisation had recorded 65 Palestinians killed, including those in the camp who were not from Jenin itself. He said there was no breakdown for civilians and gunmen.

"Most of the gunmen were wearing civilian clothes and once they were killed the Israeli soldiers took their weapons away," he said. "And we have reports houses were demolished on people."

Human rights groups have said that Israeli soldiers used Palestinians as human shields in house-to-house searches.

Taub said Israeli soldiers fought house-to-house because Palestinian gunmen were positioned among civilians. He said this "created obviously terrible dilemmas for Israel trying to fight the terrorists but not harm the civilians".

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