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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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June 1st,
2009 - U.N. Rights Team Probes Israel’s Gaza Offensive |
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U.N. Rights Team
Probes Israel’s Gaza Offensive From Reuters June 1, 2009 Gaza - United Nations human
rights investigators began work in the Gaza Strip on Monday to try to
determine whether war crimes were committed during the offensive Israel
launched in the Hamas-ruled territory last December. Israel said it would not
cooperate with the four-member team, headed by South African jurist Richard
Goldstone, which entered the Gaza Strip via Egypt. "We have come here to
see, to learn, to talk to people in all walks of life; ordinary people,
governmental people, administrative people," Goldstone told reporters. Israeli Foreign Ministry
spokesman Yigal Palmor said the Israeli government believed the committee had
been told "to find Israel guilty even before the investigation
begins". Welcoming the investigation,
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement: "We hope to see the
leaders of the Zionist enemy brought to justice as soon as possible as war
criminals in the international courts." The investigators plan to
spend a week in the Gaza Strip. Goldstone said the group would probably visit
again later in the month and submit a report in early August. International human rights
groups have called for a credible independent investigation of the conduct of
Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip, looking at the destruction of several
residential areas and firing of artillery shells containing white phosphorus
which can cause severe burns. According to a Palestinian
rights group, 1,417 people including 926 civilians were killed during
Israel's Dec. 27-Jan. 18 offensive in the coastal enclave of 1.5 million
people. Israel lost 10 soldiers and
three civilians in the fighting, which it launched with the declared aim of
halting cross-border rocket fire by militants. It says 1,166 Palestinians
were killed, 295 of them civilians. Israel says an internal
probe by its armed forces last month found no evidence of serious misconduct
by its troops. Additional reporting by Adam
Entous in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza. © Thomson Reuters 2009. All
rights reserved. External link: http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-40016020090601 |