Amnesty International urges Ki-moon to broaden a probe into Israeli attacks on UN buildings

NEW YORK, (PIC)--

Amnesty International urged Friday UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon to broaden an investigation of attacks on UN institutions in the Gaza Strip so that it becomes a comprehensive probe into all violations of international law committed by Israel and allegedly by other parties to the conflict.

Amnesty pointed out that its researchers, who visited Gaza during and after the fighting, found compelling evidence of war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law.

"The UN's investigation must not be so limited as to look only at recent attacks by Israeli forces on UN schools, staff and property in Gaza. It is not only the victims of attacks on the UN who have a right to know why their rights were violated and who was responsible, and to obtain justice and reparation," AI secretary-general Irene Khan said.

The UN committee assigned to investigate Israeli bombings of UN buildings during the war on Gaza started its work Thursday and will be in the Strip soon.

The Israeli military offensive on the UN offices and schools had claimed the lives of dozens of Palestinian refugees and caused material damage to UN facilities.

Israeli terrorist army finds no legal grounds for demolishing Gaza homes

Sunday February 15, 2009 15:00 by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC&Agencies

Recent Israeli terrorist army probes into the demolition of hundreds of Palestinian-owned homes in Gaza during the last 22-week-long Israeli war on the region, showed that many of those homes were demolished under no legal grounds.

The investigations, reported today by Haarets Israeli online Daily, explained that the demolition occurred either for doubt of weapons inside the homes or weapons smuggled through the or even for disrupted army's sight during attacks on the region.

One of the Israeli terrorist army officers was quoted by Haarets as saying " the investigations conducted by the army faced a very serious problem for many of the demolished homes were destroyed for no legal reason".

" It has become clear that many of the sites of those demolished homes were attacked illegally and that it is why we find it difficult to bring legal justifications for the demolition, especially before international legal organizations", the officer who spoke in a condition of anonymity told Haaretz.

According to Palestinian sources in Gaza , the Israeli terrorist army warplanes , tanks and bulldozers , left thousands of Palestinian-owned homes partially or completely destroyed. The sources estimate that a reconstruction process of Gaza needs at least 2.4 billion U.S dollars.

The outgoing Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, had assigned an Israeli minister to form a special panel for preparing the legal ground for Israel's war against Gaza, in light of international demands to bring to justice some Israeli army officiers because of war crimes in Gaza.

Moroccan delegation: What we saw in Gaza was more atrocious than TV broadcasts

[ 14/02/2009 - 03:11 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Dr. Mohamed Guti, the head of the Moroccan health committee to support Iraq and Palestine, said that what he and the Moroccan delegation saw in the Gaza Strip was more hideous than what appeared on TV screens, adding that Israel destroyed everything in the Strip to force its people to surrender and raise the white flag.

Dr. Guti, who headed the Moroccan delegation to Gaza, noted that the most prominent thing which drew his attention during his visit to Gaza was the continuity of life and the steadfastness of citizens despite the war and its repercussions.

The delegation head described Gaza as the international university through which noble Islamic and humanitarian values can be learned, hailing the warm welcome received by any visiting delegates as well as the level of organization and facilitation of the delegations' missions during their presence in Gaza.

Guti underlined that the delegation brought with them five tons of medicines and medical supplies provided by the union of Arab pharmacists in coordination with the world health organization and the Red Cross.

Israeli terrorist forces probe finds fault with Gaza war

Date: 15 / 02 / 2009  Time:  12:32
Bethlehem - Ma’an/Agencies -

While the Israeli occupation terrorist government says it would not recognize ICC jurisdiction over soldiers for Gaza war crimes, an internal military probe has found that damage to civilian homes will be “very difficult to justify from a legal perspective.”

A military source leaked preliminary findings of the probe to the Israeli daily paper Haaretz, days after Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki and Minister of Justice Ali Kashan made an appeal to ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to hear a case against Israel on war crimes.

The Israeli occupation terrorist government never recognized the ICC, and further distances itself from ICC authority by noting that Palestine is not an independent state; a requirement of the Rome Statute that created the court says only a state can accept the court's jurisdiction.

Despite Israeli insistence on its immunity from ICC proceedings, it has taken several steps to cover its bases if such a case goes forward.

Shortly after the war on Gaza Israeli military personnel blacked out the names of soldiers on prison records. The soldiers had handed over kidnapped Gazans to prison authorities, and the omission of their names from official documents was an act to protect their identity and prevent them from being prosecuted.

News of the military probe indicates efforts to gather information to fend off accusations of human rights violations.

One of the issues raised in the Israeli probe is the low-ranking officers making the call to destroy civilian homes. The common rationale for the destruction of civilian property was often listed as obstructing line of sight or as potential cover for militants. Dozens of homes were also reportedly destroyed after finding any sort of weapons cache inside.

According to the Haaretz source dozens of homes were destroyed on “suspicious” and ultimately unfounded claims.

As for the number of Gaza dead, the Israeli probe found about one-third of those killed during the fighting were "uninvolved civilians,” which was found to be a “reasonable figure” according to Haaretz. Palestinian and UN sources were noting civilian deaths at a third to half of the total 1,374.

The paper pointed out that the one-third line was about the ratio of civilians to militants dead in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also noted the intent to label these deaths “collateral damges.”

As the Israeli army continues with its probe, Palestinian officials, NGOs and government bodies are collecting evidence to press forward with war crimes trials.

Al-Maliki noted that an ICC trial would handle evidence for Israeli war crimes dating back to 2002.