Israel will not set up a special panel to investigate last winter's Gaza offensive, a Cabinet minister said Tuesday, rejecting a key demand of a UN report that accused the military of war crimes. Information Minister Yuli Edelstein said Israel would submit a document to the UN later this week that deals only with Israel's own investigations of its conduct during the three-week war. Those investigations have been conducted by the military, which has exonerated itself. The UN report accused both Israel and Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas rulers of war crimes and urged both to independently probe their wartime conduct. The UN General Assembly endorsed the report last November, giving the sides until Feb. 5 to respond. By rejecting calls for an independent inquiry, Israel could open itself to international war crimes proceedings. But Israeli leaders are worried that forcing soldiers to testify could hurt morale and make troops wary of taking part in future battles. “Israel will not set up any review panel,” Edelstein told Israel Radio from New York, where he discussed the report with UN chief Ban Ki-moon. Israel, which considers the report to be deeply flawed, “will relay a document addressing something very specific, namely, the character and credibility of internal investigations that took place in Israel,” Edelstein said. More than 1,400 Palestinians, including more than 900 civilians, were killed, in the Israeli offensive. Large chunks of Gaza were devastated and have not been repaired because of an ongoing Israeli and Egyptian blockade. The UN report, authored by veteran war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, accused Israel of deliberately targeting Palestinian civilians and intentionally destroying infrastructure, homes and livelihoods. Israel refused to cooperate with the Goldstone probe, despite Goldstone's Jewish faith and his close ties Israel.
