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International Criminal Court after Israel? October 8, 2009 Arabs Seek International Court Action on Israel’s Gaza Invasion By Bill Varner Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Arab nations will press the United Nations Security Council to refer allegations of Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip to the International Criminal Court, Sudan’s ambassador said October 7. Envoys representing the council’s 15 member governments agreed to Libya’s request for a meeting on the Middle East conflict on Oct. 14. Egyptian, Sudanese, Libyan and Palestinian ambassadors said they’d use it to discuss a UN-appointed panel’s findings that Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during Israel’s three-week offensive against the militant group that began in late December. The panel recommended that the Security Council require Israel to “launch appropriate” investigations within three months and, if that doesn’t happen, refer allegations of illegal acts to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. “We want this report operationalized,” Sudan’s Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohammad said, speaking as head of the Arab group of nations. U.S. Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff said discussion of the report should be confined to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, which has postponed such talks until March. Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza on Dec. 27 to stop rocket attacks on its southern towns and cities from the Hamas-controlled seaside enclave. The Israeli military said during its Gaza operation that more than 10,000 projectiles had been fired from the area into Israel since 2001. Disputed Counts The Hamas Ministry of Health in Gaza said that 1,450 Palestinians were killed during the military operation, while Israel puts the number at 1,166. The army said 13 Israelis were killed in the fighting. Israel’s military committed “grave breaches” of international law, including “willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health and extensive destruction of property,” a summary of the UN panel’s report said on Sept. 15. It also said Israel used human shields, which “constitutes a war crime.” Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev said the report was “very one-sided” and that its recommendations wouldn’t be respected. The Israeli army presented the results of its own probe April 22 and rejected the allegations that it committed war crimes. The UN panel said those investigations “lack the required credibility.” http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aqghCqlUfQNk To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Varner at the United Nations at wvarner@bloomberg.net. |
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