2010-09-28 08:24

GENEVA - The United Nations investigation team on the human rights violation committed in Gaza conflict was unable to access Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, the team leader Christian Tomuschat said on Monday in Geneva.

Tomuschat was reporting to the 15th session of UN Human Rights Council, representing the Committee of Experts. The report concluded that the investigation was not conducted thoroughly, as the UN requests to Israel for direct accesses to the related persons and territory went "unheeded."

Meanwhile, in response to the report, the Israeli Representative to the UN Aharon Leshno Yaar argued on the same occasion that the Israeli soldiers were acting "within the law" and Israel's responses to Hamas attacks were often "one-sided and obsessively biased."

In January 2009, the UN Human Rights Council established a fact- finding mission, headed by Justice Richard Goldstone to investigate the alleged violations of human rights throughout the occupied Palestinian territory. The mission had published its findings which led to UN resolution 13/9.

Under the resolution, the Committee of Experts was established in 14 June 2010 as a follow-up to the Gladstone Report. It aims to monitor and access any proceedings made by both Israel and Palestine on Human rights protection. The committee is formed by three experts appointed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.