United Nations inquiry into the war in Gaza

* If you were directed to this post by CNN, please read 'CNN & United Nations inquiry into the war in Gaza'.

A UN investigation, which looked only at deaths, injuries and damage at UN sites in Gaza during the three-week conflict, found that Israel was responsible for at least seven attacks on UN operations. The UN report comes in the wake of an Israeli internal investigation that concluded that the during the Gaza offensive the army ‘maintained a high professional and moral level’.The full 184-page investigation report by the UN board of inquiry has not been made public, press reports are based on a 23-page summary. 

Al Jazeera - 'UN blames Israel for Gaza attacks'

The UN report, commissioned by Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary-general, said the Israeli military intentionally fired at UN facilities and civilians hiding in them during the war and used disproportionate force. […]

A total of 53 installations used by the United Nations Relief and Works agency (UNRWA) were damaged or destroyed during Israel's Gaza campaign, including 37 schools - six of which were being used as emergency shelters - six health centres, and two warehouses, the UN agency said. […]

Israel's 22-day war on Gaza left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead, including around 400 children, Gaza health officials said, along with 13 Israelis. […]

It also said one of the incidents, when a World Food Programme warehouse in the Karni industrial zone in Gaza was damaged, was largely caused by a rocket "most likely" fired by Hamas or another Palestinian faction and condemned those responsible for using such "indiscriminate weapons" to cause deaths and injuries.

The Guardian - 'UN report accuses Israeli military of negligence in Gaza war'

[The report summary] said: "The board concluded that IDF [Israeli Defence Force] actions involved varying degrees of negligence or recklessness with regard to United Nations premises and to the safety of United Nations staff and other civilians within those premises, with consequent deaths, injuries, and extensive physical damage and loss of property." […]

Israel's foreign ministry attempted to pre-empt the report today, saying the Israeli military had already investigated its own conduct during the war and "proved beyond doubt" that it did not fire intentionally at UN buildings. It dismissed the UN inquiry.

"The state of Israel rejects the criticism in the committee's summary report, and determines that in both spirit and language the report is tendentious, patently biased, and ignores the facts presented to the committee," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

It said the inquiry had "preferred the claims of Hamas, a murderous terror organisation, and by doing so has misled the world".

Unfortunately, secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, refuses to act on the 11th recommendation of the report, which calls for an “impartial inquiry mandated, and adequately resourced, to investigate allegations of violations of international humanitarian law". This would require Israeli cooperation and would be harder for Israel to dismiss. However, such an enquiry into human rights abuses is seemingly deemed impolitic by Ban Ki-moon.

The UN inquiry into the Israeli war in Gaza comes in the wake of another recent UN report that is critical of Israel’s actions in Palestine; it calls for Israel to “end Palestinian demolitions in Jerusalem”. UN Radio – ‘End Palestinian demolitions in Jerusalem, UN tells Israel’

Of the 70 square kilometers of east Jerusalem and the West Bank annexed by Israel, the report says, only 13 per cent is zoned for Palestinian construction and this was mostly already built up. […]

The UN said it was particularly concerned about areas facing mass demolition, including an area south of the old city, where the threatened destruction of 90 houses would lead to the displacement of a thousand Palestinians.

More posts relating to the United Nations and Israel from The Polemical Report.

Israeli internal investigation concludes that the during the Gaza offensive the army ‘maintained a high professional and moral level’.

Al Jazeera reports that ‘Israel defends army's Gaza conduct’.

An internal Israeli investigation has concluded that the country's military acted in accordance with international law during the recent war in Gaza.  […]

The army "maintained a high professional and moral level while facing an enemy that aimed to terrorise Israeli civilians", the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), as the military in Israel is called, said in a statement.

It said it conducted five separate investigations into some of its actions during the war, including attacks on and near UN and international facilities and the use in densely populated areas of white phosphorous, a chemical agent that causes severe burns. […]

Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland, reporting from Jerusalem, said both Israeli and international human rights groups have criticised the internal investigation.

"They said a couple of weeks ago that it was completely inappropriate that an army should be investigating itself," she said.

 

"The other question is how these findings will be received by the Israeli public ... and they as a whole have been lulled into this narrative according to which the Israeli army is the most moral army in the world.

 

"So in a way, this report will be falling on very willing ears - it will be telling the Israeli public a version of events that they want to hear."

Up to 1,300 Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed during the 22-day assault on the Gaza Strip.

Thirteen Israelis, 10 of them soldiers, were killed during the same period.

Meanwhile, in the US, Hilary Clinton has been in discussion with the House Foreign Affairs Committee.  

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has reiterated the US position that it will not deal with or fund a Palestinian government that includes Hamas until certain conditions are met.

 

Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday that Hamas must renounce violence, recognise Israel and agreed to "previous obligations" of the Palestinian Authority.

She said it appeared that Hamas had "no intention" that this would happen but said the US wanted to "leave open the door". […] 

Clinton also had heavy criticism for the Pakistani government, saying it was "basically abdicating to the Taliban" in agreeing to the imposition of sharia law in parts of the country.The comments on Pakistan come in the wake of suspected US military attacks in Pakistan.  

The comments on Pakistan come in the wake of suspected US military attacks in Pakistan.  

UPDATE

Al Jazeera is now giving greater prominence to the comments on Pakistan.

Human Rights Watch publishes report on Gaza Strip

Human Rights Watch publishes report based on witness reports, testimony from victims and case reports from Palestinian human rights groups. Al Jazeera's assessment below.

Human Rights Watch has accused Hamas of killing at least 32 members of rival political factions and people accused of collaborating with Israel during the Israel's war in the Gaza Strip earlier this year. […] "Hamas should end its attacks on political opponents and suspected collaborators in Gaza, which have killed at least 32 Palestinians and maimed several dozen more during and since the recent Israeli military offensive," it said.

Hamas criticised the report as unfair. Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for the Palestinian political faction, said the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report neglected to mention the reasons behind the disorder in Gaza that allowed the abuses to occur, namely Israel's bombing of police stations and prisons. "This report, with all its details, is inaccurate and hastily-released, it lacks information and harms the policies of Hamas movement in Gaza Strip," Barhoum told Al Jazeera. "We always aim at enforcing the law and respecting freedoms."

The Human Rights Watch report said fighters believed to be affiliated with Hamas tracked down and executed 18 Palestinians, apparently suspected of being Israeli collaborators, who escaped from Gaza's main prison after it was bombed on December 28. […]

"The [Hamas] government has opened an investigation into these killings, but it is not yet completed," al-Nunu said. He said 11 police officers had been dismissed after the Israeli war, and could face criminal charges for alleged involvement in the mistreatment of a detainee. […]

"The widespread practice of maiming people by shooting them in the legs is of particular concern," the report said. It said that 49 people had been shot in the legs, while 73 Palestinian men had their legs and arms broken during the course of the 22-day conflict. Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, said he had heard numerous accounts of human rights abuses by a number of Palestinian groups during, and immediately after, the war. […]

The international rights watchdog also said "repressive measures" have increased against Hamas members in the occupied West Bank, which is controlled by Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah-aligned Palestinian president. "Western governments that support and finance the Fatah authorities in the West Bank have remained publicly silent about the arbitrary arrests and torture against Hamas members and others," Joe Stork, HRW's deputy director for the Middle East, said. The HRW report said Palestinian rights groups in the West Bank recorded 31 complaints of torture by police, as well as the death of at least one person in custody, and the arbitrary detention of two journalists considered to be pro-Hamas.