Israel wants UN to kill Gaza war probe

Tel Aviv has urged the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to stop investigating Israel’s deadly onslaught on the Gaza Strip at the turn of 2008.

An Israeli envoy to the UN said on Monday that the reason behind the request was that Tel Aviv viewed the UNHRC’s stance as “one-sided.”

Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations in Geneva Aharon Leshno Yaar also accused the UNHRC of being “obsessively biased,” Reuters reported.

More than 1,400 Palestinians, among them women and children, were killed during the December 2008-January 2009 conflict.

Last week, the UN report criticized Israel for its failure to cooperate with the mission, saying Tel Aviv’s independent investigations into violations of human rights in the war were insufficient.

The mission was set up after a UN-mandated report by South African judge Richard Goldstone accused Israel of having committed war crimes during the conflict.

Israel did not investigate the role of its leaders or alleged rights violations which occurred in the occupied West Bank during the same period.

The report by the committee underlined that the Goldstone mission contained “serious allegations that officials at the highest levels were complicit in violations” of international humanitarian and human rights laws.