UNITED NATIONS, May 7 (Xinhua) — Palestine calls on the UN Security Council and the UN secretary-general to purse reparations from the three-week Gaza offensive which caused deaths, injuries and damage to UN personnel and property, according to a press release issued on Thursday by the permanent observer mission of Palestine to the United Nations.
Palestine “welcomes” the report commissioned by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and “expresses its strong expectations that the Security Council will uphold its responsibilities” in line with international humanitarian law, said the statement.
In seeking a resolution, Palestine will work closely with the delegation of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to the United Nations, the only Arab member of the Security Council, to follow up on the Board of Inquiry’s recommendation for a further impartial investigation to assess responsibility and to purse accountability, the statement added.
On Tuesday, Ban said he would seek compensation for damage totaling more than 11 million U.S. dollars but would not follow the panel’s recommendation for further investigations.
The Israeli attacks on Gaza amounted to “gross negligence and a reckless disregard for the lives and safety of sheltering civilians,” said the Palestine mission, referring to the report’s conclusion that Israel carried out a “direct and international strike” on a UN school in Gaza City.
The statement comes on the same day as Palestinian independent lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti, also the secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative, who called on the United Nations to impose sanctions on Israel for “the war crimes its army committed in the Gaza Strip.”
“The UN should make firm resolutions against Israel for the war crimes it committed against the Gaza Strip population,” he said in a statement.
On Wednesday, after meeting with Ban in New York, Israel President Shimon Peres told reporters here that the Israeli government will “not accept one word” of the report.
“We don’t think we have to apologize because we have the right to defend the lives of our children and women,” he said, adding that Israel’s armed forces conducted their own investigation and found it had acted within international law.
Israel had carried out a 22-day military air, sea and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip that ended on Jan. 18, this year. More than 1,400 people were killed and around 5,000 injured, half of them were women and children.
photo: timesofmalta.com
