Sunday February 22, 2009 05:19 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Israeli sources reported on Saturday that a delegation of the Arab League is on its way to the Gaza Strip to probe Israeli crimes committed in the coastal region during Israel's latest offensive. The mission conducted all needed legal measures to start its work.

A number of human rights groups in Gaza have said that a high-ranking delegation was sent on behalf of the Arab League, and will arrive in Gaza via the Rafah terminal on Sunday, the Maan News Agency reported.

Arab League spokesperson, Hisham Yousuf, stated that the delegation will be writing a detailed report that will be submitted to the Arab League head, Amro Mousa, in order to take all needed legal measures.

Yousuf added that the Arab league will be helping in assessing the damage Israel left in Gaza after the offensive, and will be providing aid and expertise in rebuilding the coastal region, Israeli Ynet News reported.

On Saturday, the two committees of the Arab League convened in order to assess the situation in the Gaza Strip; one of the committees comprises international legal experts, Ynet News added.

Furthermore, Yousuf stated that probing Israeli war crimes in Gaza would take a long time, and he added that the probe is still in its initial stage.

He said that the Arab League wants to make sure that those who are responsible for war crimes against the Palestinian people will never evade justice, and will be punished accordingly.  

The Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip resulted in the death of more than 1,400 Palestinians in just over three weeks. Most of the casualties were children, women and elderly as the Israeli Army shelled civilian homes, medics, ambulances, hospitals, mosques, universities, police stations, government buildings and UNRWA facilities, including storage warehouses and schools.

In Israel, Internal Security Minister, Avi Dichter, was angered by a Jordanian decision to file a lawsuit to the International Court against him and other Israeli officials for war crimes in Gaza.

Dichter said that this Jordanian decision is hypocrisy, especially “since 39 years ago, in 1970, Jordan murdered 10,000 of its Palestinian residents in what became known as Black September, and now it wants to  go to the Hague for alleged war crimes carried out by Israel during the latest Gaza offensive”, Dichter said in an interview with Ynet news.

Al-Jazeera English is preparing to air a documentary entitled “War Crime?”, in which it will present investigative reports on the Israeli offensive. Part of the show will be a report on a Palestinian woman who was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers even though she was waving a white flag.

Arab League to send two committees to Gaza to probe war crimes, reconstruction

[ 22/02/2009 - 11:10 AM ]

CAIRO, (PIC)--

The Arab League is to send two committees into the Gaza Strip on Sunday to probe Israeli war crimes during the three weeks of aggression on the Strip that left 7,000 Palestinians either killed or wounded other than the destruction of thousands of homes, schools and other infrastructure using internationally banned weapons while the other would estimate Gaza reconstruction needs.

Hisham Yousef, the director of the office of Arab League Secretary General Amr Mousa, said in a press statement that Mousa met with members of the two committees on Saturday for a review of their duties during their visit to the Strip.

He added that the legal committee would group international legal experts headed by Jean Dugard, and explained that the committee would probe the conditions in Gaza and the crimes committed against the Palestinians there.

The committee members would tackle means of dealing with those crimes legal wise, he said, pointing out that the committee would also group Arab League experts and members of a Palestinian human rights organization.

Yousef underlined that the committee would prepare a report on the violations of the international humanitarian laws and details of the Israeli war crimes in preparation for initiating legal procedures in this regard.

The second committee, which includes representatives of Arab organizations specialized in agriculture and industry, would study the means through which Arab institutions could help in reconstructing Gaza and would review the Palestinian people's needs and means of organizing Arab efforts to reconstruct the devastated Strip.