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CNN Live Saturday

U.N. Starts Recovery Efforts in Jenin

Aired April 20, 2002 - 17:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Up first, the military and diplomatic maneuvers in the Middle East. Much of the focus is on the West Bank, where Israeli troops have had a presence for three weeks now. CNN's Jerrold Kessel brings us up to date.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): In the wake of the U.N. decision to send a fact-finding mission to the Jenin refugee camp, the scope of the operations there has now switched a little bit because it is very much a focus on the humanitarian effort to bring in all kinds of necessary supplies for the survivors, but also in the search for the dead under the rubble of that fearsome battle that continued there and the aftermath of the Israelis blowing up a number of buildings and the determination to establish precisely what happened there factored into this rescue effort.

We've heard from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which is responsible for Palestinian refugees and which is now coordinating this effort, that they've changed gear a little bit, that instead of an all-out search with heavy duty equipment, bulldozers and the like, now it's a very cautious search for bodies -- for two reasons. They say it's very dangerous, and that people have, in fact, buildings have blown up -- have exploded. There are unexploded Israeli shells, there are booby trap device still around. These are still exploding. It's dangerous for that reason.

But more than that, they say they don't want to disturb evidence which will hamper the work of that United Nations inspection team, which will come in to try to determine precisely what happened at the Jenin refugee camp. But as of now, 45 bodies have been taken out, confirmed dead, but Palestinian hospital sources say that they expect the number to rise dramatically to well over 200 at least. The Israelis, of course, have put it at a much lower number.

But even as the arguments continue between Israel and the Palestinians, both about the number of dead and the precise circumstances in which the people there were killed, the focus is also on the pledge that Israel had given to the United States and publicly that its forces would be out of the biggest Palestinian town, Nablus, and also much of Ramallah on the West Bank by Sunday. And we shall ascertain whether that is going to indeed happen.

But the Israelis, I'm bound to say, will be arguing that they need to keep their forces right around these towns, and they're pointing to an incident which happened late Saturday evening when one Palestinian man blew himself up. The Israelis say a suicide bomb intent on attacking Israeli troops. He was approaching the troops. They ordered him to stop. He did so, but then blew himself up. No Israeli casualties there. The Israelis saying that this points to the fact that they need to keep that tight cordon around the Palestinian towns, even if they have withdrawn.

That, in a sense, another kind of standoff, in addition to that tight restrictions the Israelis maintain within Ramallah and within Bethlehem.

Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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