NEW YORK (voa) – The United Nations Security Council has voted its unanimous support for (U.N.) Secretary General Kofi Annan’s decision to send a fact-finding team to the Palestinian refugee camp at Jenin, which was devastated by an Israeli military incursion.
A U.S.-sponsored resolution supporting the secretary-general’s investigation was approved late Friday after hours of deliberation, and after Washington said it would veto a resolution submitted by Arab governments. The measure that was adopted emphasizes the dire humanitarian conditions of Palestinian civilians.
The resolution calls for the lifting of restrictions imposed on relief organizations in hard-hit West Bank areas, where medical help is badly needed. The Security Council also expressed concern over the unknown number of deaths in Jenin.
Israeli troops pulled out of the refugee camp early Friday. Palestinians say Israeli forces massacred hundreds of people, most of them civilians, during the incursion. Israel says several dozen were killed, and that most of those were militants, rather than civilians.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres reportedly has said a U.N. fact-finding team will be welcome as long as it remains impartial.
The team would not act under a mandate from the 15-member Security Council, which Israel views as biased, but would be placed under the direct authority of Mr. Annan.
