Security Council votes to send fact-finding team to Jenin

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously late Friday to dispatch a fact-finding team to investigate events in the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin during the recent Israeli military invasion in the West Bank.

The resolution expressed concern with "the dire humanitarian situation of the Palestinian civilian population."

It was reported that Israeli troops killed as many as 500 people during their invasion of the West Bank town, and Arab states called for an international investigation into the Israeli aggressions.

"I believe that we have to have an immediate international commission of inquiry to investigate the massacres committed in Jenin, and I hope the Americans will not veto this resolution from the Security Council," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.

Terje Roed-Larsen, the U.N. envoy to the Middle East, visited the Jenin refugee camp Thursday and called the scene "horrifying beyond belief." Roed-Larsen compared it to an earthquake zone.

Visiting U.N. official Peter Hansen, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said the world body would play a role in any probe.

Worth noting, UN Human Rights Commissioner Marry Robinson had just canceled an investigation inquiry to Jenin because of Israel's rejection of cooperation in a delaying move seen by some as used to hide and have convicting evidence destroyed.