UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday released investigative findings recommending that Israel compensate the world body and formally acknowledge it lied about attacks on UN installations during the Gaza military campaign.
Ban’s detailed summary of an investigative board’s findings says that “the undisputed cause” of attacks on several schools, a health clinic and a UN field office was Israel’s military firing a missile, heavy mortar rounds, an aerial bomb and artillery — some of it containing white phosphorus.
The report, commissioned by Ban, recommends that the UN seek formal acknowledgment by Israel’s government that its statements alleging that Palestinians fired from within the UN’s school and the UN’s field office compound were false.
Israel launched the offensive in Gaza on Dec. 27. During the three-week operation, Israeli attacks struck several UN compounds, including the organization’s Gaza headquarters. In one strike near a UN school more than 40 people were killed, according to Gaza officials.
Ban, who called the attacks on UN buildings “outrageous,” commissioned the investigation in February, shortly after the fighting ended. Israel said it did not intentionally strike the compounds, but was forced to act against fighters using the UN buildings and other civilian areas for cover. “The spirit of the report and its language are tendentious and entirely unbalanced,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in an official statement.
Torture Center
The United Nations anti-torture committee, meanwhile, asked Israel to grant the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to a secret detention facility where torture is allegedly being practiced.
“Allegations of torture, ill-treatment and poor detention conditions in this facility have been reported to the committee,” said a document prepared by the committee for a hearing held yesterday on Israel’s record on torture.
The committee of 10 independent experts demanded that Israel release information on the alleged “Facility 1391” which is situated in an “undetermined location within Israel and which is not accessible to the ICRC or detainees’ lawyers or relatives.”
“What measures have been undertaken to ensure appropriate access by ICRC to all detainees in this facility?” the committee asked. It said it had received reports that Palestinian detainees were subjected to beatings, sleep deprivations and sharp twisting of the head at the center.
