U.N. abandons Jenin investigation mission

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The United Nations announced Wednesday evening that it is disbanding its investigative team formed to look into the Israeli military operation in the West Bank town of Jenin.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan made that decision one day after the Israeli Cabinet decided not to cooperate with the probe because of the team's makeup and mandate. (More on the sticking points)

Without Israel's cooperation, the U.N. team members could not get visas to enter the country.

The Palestinians, who originally accused Israel of massacring hundreds at the refugee camp, said the United Nations needs to investigate war crimes committed at the camp.

IN-DEPTH  CNN NewsPass Video    •  Palestinian politics  MORE STORIES   •  IDF: Arms workshops destroyed in Rafah  EXTRA INFORMATION   •  Gallery: Palestinian fatalities  RESOURCES   •  Victims of terror   •  TIME.com: Orchestrating a common ground

"It is not the numbers that count; it is the methods used by Israel in dealing with a civilian population," said Hasan Abdel Rahman, the chief Palestinian representative in the United States.

"To use Apache helicopters to fire missiles at civilian quarters, that's a violation of international law. To destroy homes over its inhabitants, that's a violation of international law. Not to allow humanitarian aid for 14 days to arrive to wounded people, that is a violation of international humanitarian law," Rahman said.

But Yehuda Lancry, the Israeli ambassador to the U.N., said the Palestinians continue to make wild claims. "There was no massacre. There are no atrocities in this camp. And, Israel intended to cooperate with the international community, but based upon a fair fact-finding inquiry and not judgmental conclusions."

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said Wednesday that 53 bodies had been recovered from the wreckage of the camp and buried.

An official from Human Rights Watch said Sunday his group had documented the cases of 52 people who died in the fighting at the camp and that 21 of those were thought to be noncombatants. That figure does not include the 23 Israeli soldiers killed during the operation.

Israel says "dozens, not hundreds" were killed in intense fighting as its forces attempted to clear out what it called "the fountainhead of suicide bombers."

Figures compiled by aid agencies show 140 of the camp's 1,896 homes were destroyed and another 200 damaged. One-quarter of the camp's population of 13,000 was made homeless, according to the agencies.

Annan said Tuesday he has "done everything" to meet Israeli concerns about the fact-finding mission.

But after four postponements, meetings, telephone calls and letters, Israel still questioned the fairness of the probe.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres later said he feared the U.N. Security Council could vote for an inquiry even more unfavorable to Israel and that the United States would not be willing to block it.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said Tuesday the United Nations would soon have to decide whether to implement its own resolutions or give in to the Israeli government -- a move that would damage the U.N.'s credibility, he said.

In Brussels on Tuesday, European Union President Romano Prodi rejected Israel's decision and said he would use this weekend's U.S.-EU summit in Washington to ask President Bush to "use his influence to persuade [Israeli] Prime Minister [Ariel] Sharon to pull out of all occupied territories and give full cooperation to the international community."

"[Israel's] continuing refusal to allow the U.N. fact-finding mission to go ahead in Jenin is unacceptable," Prodi said during a news conference outlining his agenda for the summit.

"If the army has nothing to hide, there is no reason to delay from going forward. For Israel, this is a chance to show the world that it has nothing to hide."