Investigations of Gaza conflict inadequate - U.N. experts

A Palestinian woman walks past an anti-Israel mural in Gaza City September 2, 2010. Investigations by Israel and the Palestinians into violations of human rights during the Gaza conflict of 2008-2009 were inadequate in several respects, U.N. experts said on Tuesday.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Investigations by Israel and the Palestinians into violations of human rights during the Gaza conflict of 2008-2009 were inadequate in several respects, U.N. experts said on Tuesday.

The conclusion of the expert committee, set up by the U.N. Human Rights Council, could fuel calls for suspected human rights violations during the three-week conflict to be referred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

More than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died in the conflict after Israel launched a military operation in Gaza in what it said was an attempt to halt Hamas rocket fire on its towns near Gaza.

The committee said the two sides had responded in different ways to the call by the United Nations to conduct their own investigations into allegations of war crimes, human rights violations and possibly crimes against humanity.

"The investigations, however, remain incomplete in some cases or fall significantly short of meeting international standards in others," the committee said in a report to be presented to the rights council on Sept. 27.

The allegations were contained in a report of a fact-finding mission last year led by South African jurist Richard Goldstone.

The Goldstone report, rejected by Israel, found that both the Israeli army and the Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, were guilty of war crimes in the conflict, but focused more on Israel.

Goldstone said that both sides should carry out credible investigations of their own and if they failed the question should be referred to the International Criminal Court.

The U.N. experts following up on these investigations said they had received no cooperation from the Israeli authorities in Israel or on the West Bank, but had been assisted by the Palestinian authorities.

Lack of cooperation from Israel made it impossible to assess whether Israel's probe met international standards, they said.

Israel had conducted investigations into many incidents but only four resulted in criminal indictments, one of which led to conviction for a credit card theft, they said.

But Israel did not investigate all the allegations made in the Goldstone report and suffered from conflicts of interest within the armed forces in the investigation, they said.

The experts said that an investigation by the Palestinian Authority into rights violations committed in the West Bank during the conflict had met international standards.

But that investigation was unable to examine allegations of war crimes occurring in Gaza, they said.

One investigation by the Hamas authorities controlling Gaza had made no serious effort to address allegations raised in the Goldstone report and another failed to back up accusations that political prisoners had been released and criminal prosecutions had taken place.

(Reporting by Jonathan Lynn)

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