OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 20 April — Israel bristled yesterday at the mere suggestion of US President George W. Bush that events in the Jenin refugee camp should be investigated. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s spokesman said there was "no need" for a third-party inquiry into the deaths in the camp. "We think that there is no need for such an inquiry," Sharon’s spokesman Ranaan Gissin said.

"All the evidence about Jenin is already out in the open, for everyone to see," Gissin said. "Those who think that an independent inquiry is needed are basing their opinion on a recirculation of lies," he added.

Gissin was reacting to a White House spokesman’s statement that Bush supports a probe into Jenin, where Palestinians have accused the Israeli Army of killing hundreds of civilians. "He wants the facts to be found" but has not yet expressed an opinion as to who should look into the situation, Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters. "He supports an investigation."

Under international pressure, Israel and the United States, however, agreed to a UN fact-finding mission on the devastation in the camp. After threatening to veto an Arab resolution asking for a probe of Israeli actions in the ruined camp, the United States proposed its own text saying UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan could "develop accurate information regarding recent events in the Jenin refugee camp." At the same time Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told Annan he was welcome to dispatch representatives to Jenin.

The US text omits the word "investigation" as Arab states and others proposed in a draft resolution.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson called off her fact-finding mission to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, alleging a lack of cooperation by Israel. In a statement, Robinson said she would still present a report on the "deteriorating situation" in the occupied Palestinian territories to the UN’s top human rights forum before the end of next week. The 53-member state body, holding its annual six-week session through April 26, on Monday condemned Israel for "mass killings" of Palestinians and demanded an end to Israel’s military incursions.

Israel also barred a group of medical experts of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) from entering the occupied Palestinian territories, the IRCT announced. The council said it had sent a mission to the Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to support the "traumatized and tortured people" there. But Israel barred the delegation from entering because the country was in a state of war and the IRCT said the army had told it "organizations such as yours are not welcome."

Israeli forces yesterday pulled out of Jenin, leaving behind masses of rubble underneath which an undetermined number of people lay dead and rotting.

A Palestinian man was rescued 10 days after being buried beneath rubble in the refugee camp, a Palestinian Red Crescent official said. Hossam Sharkawi, who is in charge of emergency services, said the survivor had been taken to hospital but he had no information on his condition. He said it was the first true case of a survivor being pulled from the debris of the camp.

Bloodshed across the West Bank and Gaza Strip left 10 Palestinians dead, nine shot by Israeli troops and the tenth a bomber. The killings began Thursday night, some 24 hours after US Secretary of State Colin Powell left the region after failing to win a cease-fire and as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for an armed multinational force to help end the violence.

As the Israeli Army withdrew from Jenin, it made fresh incursions elsewhere. Three Palestinian men were killed when Israeli tanks and troops entered the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. Two of the them were unarmed civilians. One was shot twice in the head and the other shot four times. It was not known if the third victim was armed.

In Ramallah, a young boy and a teenager were killed by Israeli fire, the head of the city’s hospital said. Nine-year-old Mahmoud Abu Hadra was shot in the abdomen in the suburb of Beitunya on Thursday evening, and the second victim, aged about 15, was shot in the head in the town center yesterday morning.

Ramallah resident Yussef Abusamra said the teenager was killed when several Palestinians defied a curfew and went out on the streets to buy bread. A Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance arrived soon after the shooting but for 10 minutes the army prevented the crew from attending to the teenager, he said.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian set off an explosion in his car near a heavily fortified checkpoint at the entrance to the Israeli settlement bloc of Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip, killing himself and slightly wounding two soldiers, the Israeli military said.

In the Gaza Strip, two Palestinians disguised as Israeli soldiers were shot dead overnight near the Netzarim Jewish settlement, an Israeli military spokesman said. Another Palestinian carrying explosives was also shot dead late Thursday while trying to infiltrate into the Dugit settlement in the north of the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli Army. In the northern West Bank near the border with Israel a Palestinian was shot dead by a border guard.