குறிப்பு: அறிக்கையைப் பெற உருவப்படத்தில் இருதடவை இடதழுத்தம் செய்க.
EXTRA >> Hamas: UN Gaza report 'convicts' Israel of war crimes
Posted : Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:26:18 GMT
Gaza - Hamas' de-facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniya on Wednesday welcomed a United Nations report on Israel's winter 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip, saying it convicted Israel of war crimes. "The report has presented a clear conviction against Tel Aviv for committing war crimes against civilians in the Gaza Strip," the radical Palestinian Islamic movement official said.
"Israel had used half of its weapons and practiced mass killings during 22 days of war," Haniya added.
The UN report, issued Tuesday, also criticized as a "war crime" Hamas' indiscriminate rocket fire at southern Israel, which Israel had cited as the reason its offensive.
"It is unreasonable to compare the primitive and small arms the Palestinian resistance had to defend its people and the big Israeli power of arms that was used to carry out a large-scale aggression on innocent civilians," Haniya said in a statement.
The 547-page report compiled by a UN investigative commission concluded that Israel and Palestinian militant groups likely committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.
It said the Israeli military operation, launched on December 27, had been "directed at the people of Gaza as a whole" to "punish" the population and that the army failed to investigate alleged violations properly.
The report also said that Palestinian rocket fire into southern Israel, constituted "war crimes and may amount to crimes against humanity" as the militants failed to distinguish between civilians and soldiers.
"Our government facilitated the work of the committee in Gaza in order to help to get to full truth," Haniya said, adding that it was the responsibility of the UN "to follow up the crimes of occupation."
Israel, which questioned the objectivity of the mandate given to the commission, did not cooperate with the probe.
Copyright, respective author or news agency
