Israeli shelling of Gaza village could be war crime: UN report

AFP, September, 2008

GENEVA, Sept 24, 2008 (AFP) — The UN Human Rights Council voted Wednesday to adopt a report of inquiry that says the Israeli shelling of a Palestinian village in which 19 people died could be construed as a war crime.

The 24-page report on the November 8, 2006 attack on Beit Hanoun, in the Gaza Strip, was prepared by a high-level fact-finding mission led by South African bishop and Nobel peace prize laureate Desmond Tutu.

While criticising the radical Palestinian faction Hamas for lobbing rockets at Israeli civilians, the report regretted that Israel -- which regards the council as biased against it -- refused to cooperate with the mission.

"In the absence of a well-founded explanation from the Israeli military ... the mission must conclude that there is a...