Israel struggling to block Gaza report

[joeblow]

Israel struggling to block Gaza report

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=1088...ionid=351020202


Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

The Israeli Prime Minister has demanded the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to drop support for a UN report which accuses Israel of war crimes during the 22-day onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

He alleged that the report, written by South African war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone and three other international experts, was a blow to the fight against terrorism and threatens peace efforts.

This is while the UN rights body is poised to endorse on Friday the Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead despite the diplomatic efforts undertaken by Israel and the United States in recent days to block the report.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spared no efforts over the past few days to convince his European counterparts to oppose the adoption of the report. His attempts have however proved futile.

Tel Aviv is worried that charges could be lodged against politicians and army officers for war crimes committed during Israel's three-week-long offensive against blockaded Gaza Strip. Top officials who would be in the judicial cross-hairs could include former prime minister Ehud Olmert, former foreign minister Tzipi Livni as well as current Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

The UN-ordered Goldstone report on Israel's offensive in Gaza details what investigators call Israeli actions "amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity." The 575-page report by Goldstone and three other investigators asserts seven incidents in which Palestinian civilians were shot while leaving their homes, trying to run for safety or waving white flags.

The report says Israel targeted a mosque at prayer time, killing 15 people, and shelled a Gaza City house where soldiers had forced Palestinian civilians to assemble. These attacks constituted war crimes, the report says.

The probe also found Israel violated international humanitarian law in several ways. Dozens of Palestinian policemen were killed at the start of Gaza onslaught when Israel bombed their stations. The security agents were not involved in hostilities and should have been treated as civilians. Palestinians in addition were forced to walk ahead of Israeli soldiers searching civilian neighborhoods.

More than 1,500 Palestinians were killed during three weeks of Israel's land, sea and air assault in the impoverished coastal sliver. The offensive also inflicted $ 1.6 billion damage to Gaza economy.

MP/DT