UN report accuses Israel of recklessness in Gaza

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"A U.N. inquiry accused Israel on Tuesday of gross negligence and recklessness in attacks on U.N. property in the Gaza strip during fighting between the Jewish state and Palestinian militants in January.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who appointed the four-person inquiry board in February, said he would seek compensation for damage put at more than $11 million but would not follow the panel's call for further investigations."

<snip>

"The U.N. inquiry led by Briton Ian Martin, a former head of rights group Amnesty International who later joined the United Nations, investigated nine incidents of damage to U.N. property and faulted Israel in seven of them. It blamed Hamas in one case and could not establish responsibility in another.

In several cases, the report found Israel had "breached the inviolability of United Nations premises," had not respected U.N. immunity and was responsible for deaths and injuries."

<snip>

"The panel's report emerged from a 27-page summary sent by Ban to members of the U.N. Security Council and to Israel. Ban said the full 184-page report was being kept secret because information in it could prejudice U.N. security.

In a letter accompanying the summary, Ban said he was "carefully reviewing these recommendations with a view to determining what course of action, if any, I should take." But he said he did not plan any further inquiry."

http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSN05321386

[mike_c]

1. "recklessness?!"

Murderous would be a better characterization.

[PDJane]

2. Recklessness?

Only recklessness? I should think there would be other ways to describe that but recklessness.

[Scurrilous]

3. Peres tells Ban: Israel will never accept UN Gaza probe

<snip>

"President Shimon Peres said on Wednesday that Israel would never apologize for its military offensive on the Gaza Strip earlier this year, calling a damning United Nations report on its conduct there "unfair and one-sided."

The UN-commissioned investigation found the Israel Defense Forces were responsible for civilian deaths and damage to UN compounds in Gaza Strip.

"We will never accept it," Peres, after meeting with UN Secretary Genera Ban Ki-Moon in New York. "It's outrageous."

The three-member investigative board was established by Ban to seek the truth about a number of military incidents which occurred during Israel's three-week war with Hamas in late December and early January. The 184-pgae report, which was released on Tuesday, said the IDF was responsible for six of nine attacks against UN-run compounds in Gaza.

"The secretary general is not responsible for the report," Peres said following the meeting with Ban in his 38th floor office. "We have high regards for the secretary general, but we cannot accept one word in the report. The report is unfair and one-sided."

Ban said Tuesday that he wanted the board to clarify all the facts regarding the incidents. But he said the board had no court of law obligations and the report was an internal UN document. He nonetheless supported the findings."

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