Global Policy Forum

A long-awaited U.N. report rejects Palestinian claims that Israeli forces carried out a massacre in the Jenin refugee camp, but it criticizes both sides for putting civilian lives at risk, Western diplomats said.

The report, to be released Thursday, was prepared by Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the request of the General Assembly after Israel refused to let a U.N. fact-finding mission probe the Israeli military assault on the camp. Israel approved the fact-finding mission on April 19 saying it had ``nothing to hide,'' but later objected to the team's makeup and mandate.

The violence in Jenin came amid an Israeli offensive across the West Bank launched on March 29 in response to a suicide bombing that killed 29 Israelis. The Jenin camp saw the heaviest fighting, and Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said in mid-April that 500 people had been killed.

But the U.N. report said only 52 Palestinian deaths had been confirmed by April 18, and that up to half may have been civilians. It called the Palestinian allegation that some 500 were killed ``a figure that has not been substantiated in the light of evidence that has emerged,'' the diplomats said Wednesday.

The U.N. findings mirrored those of Human Rights Watch, which said its experts had found nothing to back allegations of an Israeli army massacre.

Israel has repeatedly denied any massacre took place, putting the number of Palestinians killed in the dozens — the vast majority gunmen — during fierce battles between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants. Twenty-three Israeli soldiers were also killed.

Human rights groups have said 22 civilians were killed in Jenin.

The Palestinians accused Israel of committing ``war crimes'' and ``atrocities'' in Jenin and said the key outstanding issue was whether the attacks constituted ``a massacre and a crime against humanity.''

The report was also to look into attacks on other Palestinian cities assaulted by the Israeli army during the campaign.

Between March 1 and the beginning of May, the report said 497 Palestinians were killed during Israel's Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank, according to diplomats who got advance copies and spoke on condition of anonymity.

That figure was almost double the death toll of 262 reported by the Red Crescent Society in the Palestinian territories for the same period.

The report accused Israel of increasing the suffering of Palestinian civilians by imposing curfews, closing off cities and delaying access to medical care and humanitarian aid, the diplomats said. And it charged Palestinian militants with deliberately putting their fighters and equipment in civilian areas in violation of international law, they said.

On some key issues, the report simply gave both sides' positions and said it couldn't make a judgment.

Israel maintained that its army took all measures possible not to hurt civilians, but some human rights groups and Palestinians said they didn't, the diplomats said.

Similarly, Israel defended its shift in tactics following an ambush of its soldiers — from going after houses of known militants to much wider bombardment — as reasonable. But some human rights groups and the Palestinians said this was disproportionate, the diplomats said.

The report was based on information from U.N. officials, the Palestinians, five U.N. member states, private relief organizations and documents in the public domain, the diplomats said. Annan wrote to the Israeli government asking for help in preparing the report but U.N. officials said Israel did not make a submission or respond to the letter.

Israel and the Palestinians received copies of the report late Wednesday but refused to comment until its release.

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