UN official: Israel should review its 'entire' military policy in Gaza
By News Agencies
Israel should review its "entire policy" of military action against Palestinians since violence was bound to cause civilian casualties and destroy prospects for peace, a senior United Nations official said on Tuesday.
Ibrahim Gambari, the UN undersecretary-general for political affairs, also told a Security Council meeting on the Middle East that Palestinian militants fired more than 200 rockets and mortar shells over the past month into the town of Sderot, which he called "legally and morally wrong."
Israel Defense Forces operations in the West Bank and Gaza have killed at least 128 Palestinians and wounded more than 380 during the past month, including at least 19 children.
Advertisement
"Israel should act prudently and proportionally in defending its citizens, so as to avoid civilian casualties," Gambari said, adding that firing artillery into civilian neighborhoods such as Gaza's Beit Hanun, where 19 people were killed on November 8, make civilian deaths inevitable.
Annan: Rights council should broaden focus The United Nations Human Rights Council should broaden its focus beyond the Palestinian-Israeli issue to avoid accusations it is one-sided, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva for the last time before he steps down as secretary-general at the end of the year, Annan said the council's preoccupation with Israel's actions in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories while ignoring the situation in Darfur had caused some to wonder whether it had "a sense of fair play."
"They [the council members] have tended to focus on the Palestinian issue, and of course if you focus on the Palestinian-Israeli issue without even discussing Darfur and other issues, some wonder 'what is this council doing?"' he said.
The 47-member council, which earlier this year replaced the discredited Human Rights Commission, has been severely criticized by some countries, including the United States, for moving four times to condemn Israel but not taking up human rights violations in Myanmar, North Korea or Sudan.
Annan's remarks coincided with the release of a council inquiry Tuesday into Israel's actions during the monthlong conflict this summer, which accused Israel of "a significant pattern of excessive, indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force... against Lebanese civilians."
The inquiry, which was instigated by members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, was not mandated to look at the conduct of the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah during the fighting.
While the inquiry notes that "any independent, impartial and objective investigation into a particular conduct during the course of hostilities must of necessity be with reference to all the belligerents involved," the report concludes that examining the actions of Hezbollah in Israel would have exceeded its powers
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
