UN Security Council fails to discuss Gaza investigation

The UN Security Council failed on Thursday to agree on the procedures for a debate on the controversial investigation that held Israel accountable for causing deaths of Palestinians and the destruction of UN compounds in the Gaza Strip. A summary of the 184-page report by an independent, three-member board was provided to the 15-nation council on Tuesday. But the board members were given no legal and court of law obligations to pursue their work and the report itself was labelled as an internal UN document. Council president, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, said council members discussed 'the modality of possible handling by the Security Council of the summary.' 'We have not reached an agreement on the subject,' he told reporters. He said he would discuss further 'if and how' the council should take up the summary. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon commissioned the investigation to determine the truth relating to accusations that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were responsible for the destruction of UN-run schools and compounds in Gaza and the deaths of dozens of Palestinians. Israeli President Shimon Peres, who visited UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday and held talks with Ban, called the report 'outrageous,' 'unfair' and 'one-sided.' Peres said his government rejected the report, but did not consider Ban responsible for it. Peres said, however, that an Israeli team would discuss with UN officials compensation for the destruction, which the UN estimated at 11 million dollars. Ban supported the board's findings, but said the report was an internal UN document, closing the doors to further discussion. The report said IDF were responsible for six of nine serious incidents during the conflict with Hamas in December and January. In one incident, the IDF fired 122mm mortar rounds into the immediate vicinity of the Jabalia school on January 6, killing 30 to 40 Palestinians, the investigators found. The site was the refuge of hundreds of Palestinians who had fled the Israel-Hamas conflict. 'The board found that the undisputed cause of the injuries and the deaths to persons in the immediate vicinity of the school was the firing of 122mm mortar rounds by the IDF, which landed in the area outside the school and at the compound of a family home nearby,' the report said. The IDF claimed Hamas had used the school to fire missiles against Israel. But the board said 'there was no firing from within the compound and (it found) no explosives within the school.' The report said the IDF had been given GPS coordinates of the Jabalia school, which was among the 91 shelters that had been communicated to the IDF before it launched Operation Cast Lead against Hamas militias in Gaza. 'In six of the nine incidents, the board concluded that the death, injuries and damage involved were caused by military actions, using munitions launched or dropped from the air or fired from the ground, by the Israel Defense Forces,' the investigators found. The board said it found 'undisputed cause' that Israeli military activities had caused damage and deaths to the Asma school, the Jabalia school, the Bureij health center, a field office compound, the Beit Lahia school and a UN compound. The schools and field office were run by the UN refugee agency in the Middle East known as UNWRA.