Hamas welcomes formation of UN panel on Israel crimes

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has welcomed an initiative by the United Nations to appoint a panel to investigate crimes committed by Israel during the Tel Aviv regime’s onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip.

“We welcome the council’s decision to form an international inquiry panel into the war crimes in Gaza,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a press release on Monday.

Earlier in the day, the UN Security Council appointed Amal Alamuddin from the United Kingdom, Doudou Diène from Senegal and William Schabas from Canada to serve as members of the human rights body’s independent Commission of Inquiry to probe the crimes.

Schabas will lead the independent committee, said the president of the UN Security Council, Baudelaire Ndong Ella.

The panel will submit its report to the UN Human Rights Council by March 2015.

The Israeli war on the Gaza Strip began on July 8. According to Palestinian health officials, the overall Palestinian death toll from the brutal Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has reached 1,944, with most of the fatalities being civilians. Nearly 10,000 others have also been wounded in the attacks.

Latest tallies show that nearly 470 Palestinian children have so far lost their lives in the Israeli attacks against the impoverished Gaza Strip. Children also make up almost one-third of the injured.

Gaza has been under Israel’s blockade since June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standards of living and poverty.