UN envoy sees Israeli war crimes

A United Nations human rights investigator said that Israel's military assault on densely populated Gaza appeared to constitute a grave war crime.

Richard Falk, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said the Geneva Conventions required warring forces to distinguish between military targets and surrounding civilians.

"If it is not possible to do so, then launching the attacks is inherently unlawful and would seem to constitute a war crime of the greatest magnitude under international law," said Mr Falk.

"On the basis of the preliminary evidence available, there is reason to reach this conclusion," he wrote in an annual 26-page report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council.

Mr Falk gave the same death toll from Israel's offensive in December and January - 1,434 Palestinians, including 960 civilians - as the Palestinian human rights centre.

Israel, which lost 13 people during the war, disputes the figures and has accused Hamas fighters in Gaza of using civilians as human shields during the conflict - an allegation which Mr Falk said should be investigated. He called the Israeli attacks a "massive assault on a densely populated urbanised setting" in which the entire civilian population had been subjected to "an inhumane form of warfare that kills, maims and inflicts mental harm. As all borders were sealed, civilians could not escape from the orbit of harm," he said.

This denial of people's right to flee the war zone as refugees may also constitute a crime against humanity, he said.

Mr Falk called for an independent experts group to probe possible war crimes committed by both Israeli forces and Hamas. Violations included Israel's alleged "targeting of schools, mosques and ambulances" during the offensive, which lasted from December 27 to January 18, and its use of weapons including white phosphorus, as well as Hamas's firing of rockets at civilian targets in southern Israel.