UNITED NATIONS: Israeli forces committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity during their assault on the Gaza Strip eight months ago, the head of a UN fact-finding rights mission said on Tuesday.
Richard Goldstone told reporters that his four-member probe panel “concluded that actions amounting to war crimes and possibly in some respects crimes against humanity were committed by the Israel Defense Forces.”
Israel reacted quickly, saying in a statement issued by its diplomatic mission in Geneva that it did not cooperate with Goldstone’s investigation. “Its mandate was clearly one-sided and ignored the thousands of Hamas missile attacks on civilians in southern Israel that made the Gaza operation necessary,” the statement said.
Goldstone, a noted South African jurist, recommended that the UN Security Council call on Israel to investigate possible crimes committed by its forces. The probe should be “independent and in conformity with international standards” and establish a committee of human rights experts to monitor any such proceedings.
If Israel fails to do so, then the 15-nation council should refer the situation in Gaza to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the summary said.
“The rocket and mortar attacks (by Hamas) caused terror in the affected communities of southern Israel, causing loss of life and physical and mental injury to civilians, as well as damage to buildings and property,” it also said.
Goldstone said Israel’s blockade of Gaza, which began prior to the assault, amounted to “collective punishment” for the 1.5 million Gazans, most of whom rely on aid to survive. The summary said that Israel’s Gaza operation was directed at the people of Gaza as a whole, not just Hamas members.
His report said Israeli forces “humiliated, dehumanized and carried out an assault on the dignity of the people in Gaza, through the use of human shields, unlawful detentions, unacceptable conditions of detention ... obscenities and racist slogans.”
It said the use of human shields is a war crime and that a court could find that the blockade of Gaza, which Israel continues to enforce, is itself a crime against humanity. Goldstone’s report also criticized Israel for firing white phosphorus incendiary shells over the UN compound in Gaza and its “intentional strike” on the Al-Quds hospital using high explosive artillery shells and white phosphorus.
The report said an Israeli soldier held by Hamas since June 2006, Gilad Shalit, has prisoner-of-war status and should be treated humanely according to the Geneva Conventions.
Following the release of the report, Amnesty International said the United Nations must act and bring those responsible to justice.
The UN Human Rights Council should endorse the report and ask UN chief Ban Ki-moon to refer it to the UN Security Council, said Donatella Rovera, who headed Amnesty’s investigation into the turn-of-year conflict.
“The UN Security Council and other UN bodies must now take the steps necessary to ensure that the victims receive the justice and reparation that is their due and that perpetrators don’t get away with murder,” she added.
Meanwhile, US envoy George Mitchell sought a deal on the thorny issue of West Bank settlements on Tuesday as he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in a bid to pave the way to resume stalled peace talks.
