United Nations ? The Security Council unanimously approved a U.S. resolution Friday supporting a U.N. fact-finding mission to look into Israeli military action in Jenin.

The resolution came after Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told Secretary-General Kofi Annan that it would welcome a U.N. representative “to clarify the facts” of what happened in the Jenin refugee camp.

Arab nations have accused Israel of a massacre in the Jenin refugee camp but Israel says the deaths and destruction were the result of gunbattles between its soldiers and Palestinian gunmen.

Israel’s U.N. Mission said Peres told Annan that “Israel has nothing to hide regarding the operation in Jenin,” adding “our hands are clean.”

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said that in the phone call with Annan, Peres only mentioned a mission to the city of Jenin, but “the secretary-general would hope that any fact-finding mission he sends would have full access to all areas of the West Bank.”

The resolution also expresses concern at “the dire humanitarian situation” of Palestinian civilians and “emphasizes the urgency of access of medical and humanitarian organizations to the Palestinian civilian population.”

It also reaffirms previous Mideast resolutions demanding an immediate Israeli withdrawal from all Palestinian cities and outlines a blueprint to end the violence and achieve a peace settlement leading to a Palestinian state.

Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian U.N. envoy, called Peres’ position positive.

“We hope that we are going to see some effective investigation with clear-cut results to convince the whole world,” he said.

Arab nations had been pushing for a vote on a resolution expressing shock at reports of a massacre at Jenin and requesting that Annan to investigate. The United States had threatened to veto it.

Earlier Friday, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said the Bush administration didn’t oppose trying to find out the facts but didn’t believe it should be done through a Security Council resolution.

But with the Arabs pressing for a vote on their resolution and the Palestinians saying there was room for compromise, the Americans apparently changed their mind after Peres’ call.

Friday a militant blew himself up at a Gaza Strip checkpoint and Israeli army fire killed seven Palestinians, even as Israeli troops withdrew from Jenin.

The militant Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing at an army checkpoint near the Kissufim crossing between Israel and Gaza, the first such attack in the strip in five months. The assailant was killed and two soldiers were lightly wounded.

In the past 19 months of fighting, scores of suicide bombings have been launched from the West Bank, but none from the Gaza Strip, which is separated from Israel by a high fence.