Israel handed the United Nations Friday a report on its military investigations into the Gaza war, rejecting accusations of war crimes and refusing to say whether it will hold an independent inquiry. The Palestinian observer to the UN also said he had handed over his government's report on war crimes allegedly committed by Palestinian militants during the brief but bloody conflict. UN chief Ban Ki-moon's office confirmed he had received a letter from Israel responding to allegations and that he “was working on his response” to the UN General Assembly. Israel's 46-page report said its army had examined 150 reports of wrongdoing during last year's war, of which 36 had been referred to criminal investigation. While admitting several fatal errors in judgment, the report denied any violations of international law during the war in which some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed. “The complexity and scale of such operations means that inevitably there are tragic instances, mistakes, and errors of judgment. Tragic results, including civilian death and damage to property do not necessarily mean that violations of international law have occurred,” it said. The 36 cases under criminal investigation included 34 incidents addressed by a fact-finding mission by the UN Human Rights Council headed by South African international war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, the report said. “I think this report again proves the fact that the IDF (Israel Defense Force) is the most responsible and serious army and operates in the most moral way,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement earlier Friday. He called the Goldstone report - which accused both Israel and Palestinian armed groups of war crimes during the three weeks of fighting - “distorted, biased and unbalanced.” Hamas has also denied accusations of war crimes. At the UN, Palestinian observer Riyad Mansour said the Palestinian Authority “met the deadline in submitting what is required of it,” referring to a call by the UN last November for Israel and Hamas to conduct independent probes of the allegations by Feb. 5.
