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Palestinians submit Gaza report to UN: envoy

The Palestinians on Friday handed over to the United Nations a preliminary report on how they plan to probe war crimes allegedly committed by Palestinian militants during last year’s Gaza war, their UN envoy said.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian observer to the UN, told reporters that he submitted to UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s chief of staff Vijay Nambiar a preliminary report by a commission of five well-known judges and legal experts set up by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In doing so, he said the Palestinian side “met the deadline in submitting what is required from it”.

Mansour gave no further details on what the report contains.

Last November, the 192-member UN General Assembly endorsed a UN enquiry panel report that accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes during the devastating 22-day conflict and gave the two sides until February 5 to conduct independent probes of the charges.

Wednesday, the Islamist Hamas movement said it investigated the allegations in the UN report and absolved Palestinian armed groups of any atrocities.

Hamas, which along with other armed groups has launched thousands of makeshift rockets into southern Israel in recent years, said a committee it appointed to follow up on the report found no intention to harm civilians.

Asked about the Hamas announcement, Mansour replied: “What you are referring to is just basically press reports and I don’t respond to press reports.”

He insisted that what he turned over to the UN was the response received from the official Palestinian government.

Earlier Friday, Israel said it told the UN it did not commit war crimes during last year’s Gaza war, but it was unclear whether it has agreed to UN demands to hold an independent inquiry.

Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during the Israeli offensive aimed at halting rocket attacks from the Hamas-ruled Palestinian enclave.