Scores of Dead Bodies Retrieved From Jenin So Far;
Widespread Destruction Reported; (Read photo caption within)
UN Human Rights Body Condemns Mass Killings & Pakistan Demands International Investigation

In Geneva, The United Nations top human rights body on Monday condemned "mass killings" during Israel's incursion into the West Bank.

The U.N. Human Rights Commission voted by 40 votes to five, with seven abstentions, to express its "grave concern" over the 17-day-old Israeli offensive .

The Palestinians reported a massacre in the refugee camp in Jenin, scene of a bitter extended battle between Israeli occupation soldiers and Palestinian Resistance men and bombers.

SCORES OF DEAD BODIES RETRIEVED

Palestinian medics began retrieving bodies from this devastated refugee camp Monday. Israel and the Palestinians have argued over who will retrieve the bodies - part of their bitter dispute over what happened in the weeklong battle.
On Sunday, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected an army plan to bury most of the bodies from the camp in an Israeli cemetery, and insisted the Red Cross monitor the gathering of the corpses.

Palestinians have charged that hundreds of people have been killed in the camp, including many civilians, while Israel said about 100 died, most of them Resistance men.

Palestinian medical officials said troops were making the work of the medic crews more difficult by stopping ambulances repeatedly for searches and ID checks.

MEDICS PLACE GALLONS OF DRINKING WATER IN THE STREETS

Medics in surgical masks, latex gloves and white uniforms placed gallons of drinking water in the streets, and residents took them into their homes.

Dr. Tim Keenan, who headed one of the Red Cross teams, said water and electricity to the local hospital had been restored. He said his first priority was to look for wounded people. Before the search began, the medics and ambulances were thoroughly searched by Israel troops, Keenan said.

After banning reporters from the camp throughout the battle, the Israeli military took a group of journalists through on Sunday. Occupation soldiers said then they had found 40 bodies so far, most of them Resistance men.

CORPSES FOUND AMONG WIDESPREAD DESTRUCTION

Reporters accompanying medics entered a house where they saw six bodies blackened by an explosion or fire. Several of the bodies had been covered with blankets. The dead appeared to have been policemen - several of them wore black uniforms. In another house, a dead man lay in a doorway, apparently a civilian. He was slumped forward.

There was widespread destruction in the camp, where tanks and bulldozers knocked over buildings in their street-to-street fight. In some places, rubble was piled two stories high, with pieces of furniture and personal possessions mixed with broken concrete.

The powerful stench of sewage mixed with garbage strewn on the camp's narrow alleyways. Many houses were empty, some with their front doors open.

Some homes had their windows shut, but the sound of children playing and the aroma of baking bread wafted through, indicating that some people were still around.

PAKISTAN DEMANDS INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATION

Pakistan on Sunday accused Israel of killing Palestinians in a the Jenin refugee camp and demanded an impartial international inquiry into the deaths.

The demand came in a statement issued by Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar. The statement also demanded the immediate withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from occupied Palestinian territories and for the urgent resumption of the political process for the settlement of the Palestinian issue. Abdul Sattar added that the U.N. Security Council should immediately authorize the deployment of an international force to maintain peace in the region in line with its Secretary General Kofi Annan's call.

PHOTO CAPTION

A man looks at the charred body of a Palestinian in a house in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, April 15, 2002, killed during an assault by Israeli troops. The West Bank cities of Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus and Bethlehem remain under Israeli military curfew, along with several refugee camps and villages. REUTERS/Mahfouz Abu Turk

SOURCE: NEWS AGE