HIGHLIGHTS: Five-Pulled Alive Including Two Children.
Larsen Warns of a Major Humanitarian Disaster.
Moashar Visits Arafat.
Read photo caption within

STORYHorrific conditions prevailing in the Jenin Refugee Camp following Israeli atrocities that may have left hundreds of Palestinians dead and alive under the rubble have aroused an outcry from UN Mideast envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen who warned of a humanitarian disaster in the camp. Meanwhile five Palestinians were pulled alive from beneath the rubble including five children.

Palestinians resumed digging through rubble in search of missing people after Israeli Tanks and troops left Jenin camp overnight

"We found five people, who were taken to Jenin hospital in very bad state," resident Naim Awais told Reuters in the camp. "There were two boys, a woman and two men."

There is no firm word on Palestinian casualties, but Muhammad Abu Ghali, director of Jenin hospital, told Reuters he expected the toll to soar. "Twenty-three were buried in the hospital grounds, and 10 others were buried near houses and in other parts of Jenin, " he said, adding that people are finding bodies every day and they are searching with their hands. International help is needed, according to Mr. Abu Ghali.

International aid agencies have been urgently demanding more access to Jenin refugee camp, many of whose 13,000 residents lost their homes to Israeli tanks and bulldozers.

SHOCKING & BEYOND BELIEF

U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen took stock of the devastation on Thursday.

"We are shocked," he said alongside his delegation after the tour. "This is horrifying beyond belief. Just seeing this area, it looks like there's been an earthquake here, and the stench of death is over many places where we are standing."

The envoy said he came across the body of a boy who appeared to be about 12 years old and had been burnt. "Evidently, there are lots of other corpses. And the stench is telling its own story around here," Roed-Larsen said.

Roed-Larsen demanded that Israel give immediate access to aid organizations and the United Nations so they could mount a "major humanitarian operation." Red Cross and Red Crescent teams have been operating in the camp since Monday, but say they do not have the equipment they need to recover bodies and to mount an extensive search for any survivors.

STAND OFF AT BETHLEHEM CONTINUES

In Bethlehem, negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian officials to end the impasse at the church were canceled at the last minute, Hannah Nasser, the city's mayor said.

The governor of Bethlehem, Mohammed al-Madani, who is holed up in the church with scores of Resistance, policemen, clerics, nuns and church workers, told Reuters by telephone he would liked some kind of security committee from the Palestinian and Israeli sides to meet with an international group in order to solve the problem.

MUASHAR MEETS ARAFAT IN RAMALLAH

Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Masher flew by helicopter to meet Arafat, becoming the fourth foreign dignitary to visit his besieged headquarters since Israel launched its offensive on March 29.

Arafat's neurologist, Dr. Ashraf al-Kurdi, who has said the Palestinian leader's regular checkup was four months overdue, accompanied masher. Several years ago, Arafat developed tremors in his lower lip. Doctors have said it was a nervous tic. Media reports have speculated he suffers from Parkinson's disease, a degenerative neurological disease.

POWELL TO RETURN SHORTLY

A senior State Department official said Powell could return "in two or three weeks," signaling a deeper U.S. involvement in efforts to calm the conflict after the hands-off approach taken by the Bush administration during its first year in power.

PHOTO CAPTION:

An injured Palestinian boy stands in the destroyed Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank April 18, 2002. Palestinians dug five survivors from the rubble of the shattered camp and said they had heard others crying out for help. Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters
- Apr 18 7:38 AM