GAZA CITY, 25 July — Under intense global pressure, Israel yesterday pledged to hold an inquiry into Monday night’s missile attack on a heavily populated Gaza locality that left 16 people, mostly children, dead. Washington, the Jewish state’s closest ally, agreed not to oppose an Arab-sponsored debate on the carnage at the United Nations Security Council. But the United States made it clear it would not allow any resolutions to be passed by the 15-member body after the debate that was slated to begin late at night.
In a letter to the president of the Council, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations said the deadly airstrike constituted a war crime that falls under the scope of the International Criminal Court (ICC). "The Israeli assault represents the first blatant war crime committed by the Israeli occupying forces since the entry into force this month of the ICC," Nasser Al-Kidwa said in his letter.
"This action definitely falls within the jurisdiction of the court and, as such, measures to bring the perpetrators to justice should be taken," Al-Kidwa said. He rejected Israel’s contention that Monday’s airstrike had been planned as a targeted killing.
"There was no way that such a military strike would not produce such tragic results in terms of civilian deaths and injuries and physical destruction," he said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres pledged to investigate the attack and said he intended to press on with talks with moderate Palestinians on easing the hardships of 700,000 Palestinians living under Israeli curfew in the West Bank and releasing frozen tax revenues to the Palestinians.
Haim Ramon, chairman of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said the buck stopped with the government. "Ultimately it was the military’s mistake, but it does not send an F-16 to a populated area without political authorization," said Ramon, a member of Peres’ Labor Party.
The airstrike may have wrecked an imminent commitment by Palestinian fighters to end bombings. Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said yesterday that an agreement had been within reach. British officials were part of the EU and US team that was finalizing the terms of an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire when Israel launched its attack, diplomatic sources confirmed.
They stopped short of pronouncing the agreement dead, saying that talks could continue.
