Barred from entering Gaza, UNHRC investigation begins in Jordan

Monday 17 November 2014

Barred from entering Gaza, UNHRC investigation begins in Jordan

A Palestinian rides his bike past houses that were destroyed during the 50-day Israeli aggression against Gaza, on November 16, 2014. AFP / Mohammed Abed

Published Monday, November 17, 2014Al-Akhbar

The United Nations committee investigating possible war crimes by Israel during its summer assault on Gaza has spent the past week in Jordan listening to the testimonies of victims’ families and civil society organizations, Ma'an news agency reported on Sunday.

According to the Palestinian Representative to the Red Cross, Ibrahim Khreisheh, the investigation committee, which was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, was forced to meet with Palestinians in Jordan after it was denied entry to the West Bank and Gaza by Israel.

Khreisheh denounced Israel for denying the committee members entry to Palestine and added that he considered it yet another Israeli violation of Palestinian rights.

The Israeli authorities decided last week not to cooperate with the UNHRC investigation into the Israeli aggression on Gaza this summer, dismissing the investigation as a “kangaroo court” and accusing its chairman, Canadian academic William Schabas, of anti-Israeli bias because of his repeated calls to bring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the International Criminal Court.

The team had intended to enter the Gaza Strip via Egypt, but was prevented from doing so by the security conditions in Sinai.

Instead, the committee will listen to the testimonies of bereaved Gaza families this week using videoconferencing technology, according to Khreisheh, who also said that the committee will visit Gaza in January.

The team, which consists of 15 people includes human rights experts, investigators and technical staff, is required to submit its final report on March 1, 2015.

“Only representatives of Palestine and Israel will be allowed to see the final report 48 hours before it’s submitted to the regular session,” Khreisheh added.

He said that the report will differ from the so-called Goldstone report of 2009, in that it will include possible Israeli crimes from June 16, 2014 until the day the report is submitted.

For 51 days this summer, Israel pounded the Gaza Strip by air, land and sea.

More than 2,180 Palestinians, at least 70 percent of them civilians, were killed, and 11,000 injured during seven weeks of unrelenting Israeli attacks in July and August.

The besieged enclave has also seen widespread destruction of its infrastructure, reaching levels of devastation that UN chief Ban Ki Moon called “beyond description” in a visit to the Gaza Strip on October 14. 80,000 Palestinians homes were damaged, at least 20,000 of these are uninhabitable, leaving over 106,000 of Gaza's 1.8 million residents displaced in UN shelters or hosted by relatives.

According to UN figures, at least 505 Palestinian children were killed during the offensive, and the majority of Gaza’s homeless people are children.

(Ma’an, Al-Akhbar)