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CNN Saturday Morning News
U.N. Votes to Investigate Israeli Attack on Jenin
Aired April 20, 2002 - 07:08 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The other conflict the world is watching is the Middle East. Last night the United Nations Security Council unanimously agreed to investigate the Israeli attack on Jenin. Humanitarian officials describe the refugee camp as a horrifying scene that resembles an earthquake zone where residents are digging through rubble in search of loved ones and the stench of death is everywhere.
The U.S. had initially opposed an Arab-drafted measure, but the U.S. relented after Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres invited U.N. Security-General Kofi Annan to send the investigators. Israel says it has nothing to hide. Palestinians accuse Israel of massacre.
Let's get reaction now on the U.N. vote from our Jerrold Kessel. He joins us live from Jerusalem.
Good to see you, Jerrold.
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kyra, and really an interesting development. It not too often that -- these days that you hear Israelis and Palestinians saying they welcome the same thing, but in fact, that's what's happened.
The Israelis saying they are perfectly willing to work with a fact-finding mission sent by the United Nations. And as you rightly said, this was facilitated, the 15 to 0 vote at the Security Council, by Israel's Foreign Minister Shimon Peres saying up front in a conversation with Kofi Annan, the U.N. Secretary-General, that Israel would perfectly -- be perfectly amenable to such a fact-finding mission sent to the Jenin refugee camp. And the Israelis are saying that they will work with that fact-finding mission when is -- which -- when it arrives.
Now having said that both sides are saying they welcome this development, of course they have very different agendas in that respect. The Israelis saying they have nothing to hide and it will be a good occasion to prove their point that the deaths in the camp on the Palestinian side were occasioned by the severe fighting that took place there as they went in after the Palestinian gunmen, the terrorists as the Israelis call them. And the Palestinians, however, saying that this is an important development, a step forward toward the possibility that criminal and charges will be pressed against even Ariel Sharon or the Israeli military who we find guilty of committing war crimes in that -- in those battles in the camp. So that's the Palestinian perspective, but neither -- nonetheless, both sides are at least welcoming this development which to a degree takes the heat out of the argument which continues to rage though about what precisely went on in the camp and more specifically, how many people died there.
Now the Israelis know -- have said that more than 20 of their soldiers were killed in Jenin and there was a question of how many Palestinians died and what were their identity, were they the gunmen, were they civilians? So far, 43 bodies have been buried -- have been brought to the Jenin hospital and buried from there and the search continues and there are known to be at least a number more under the rubble.
But there's still question marks at the Palestinian doctors saying that they believe the death toll will finally top at least 200. Israel has said that it will be in the region of around 60 to 70 was the numbers used by the Israeli military. So that argument continuing even as people continue to search for their loved ones and for others who might be buried under the rubble.
And an interesting development also this morning in that the U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns went to the camp and made a statement there. He has been visiting the scene as people were digging under the rubble. Mr. Burns said it's obvious that what happened here in the Jenin camp has caused enormous human suffering for thousands of Palestinian civilians. I think what we're seeing here is a terrible human tragedy.
Well the stress there from the United States envoy very much on the human suffering of the civilians and that up against the backdrop with no judgment being offered of who were the others in the camp as part of the battle. That continuing, that battle, that propaganda battle, if you like, that argument continuing to rage but now in a different vogue as they -- two sides prepare for the arrival of the U.N. fact-finding mission -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Our Jerrold Kessel live from Jerusalem. Thanks for the latest there, Jerrold.
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