The United Nations on Friday appointed a widely respected South African judge who is a trustee of Hebrew University to lead a high-level mission to investigate alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip, AP reported. Israel refused to say if it would cooperate. Richard Goldstone, the former U.N. chief prosecutor for war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, was named to head the investigation ordered by the Human Rights Council in January. According to the mandate, the investigation should focus on Palestinian victims of the three-week war between Israel and Hamas earlier this year. But Goldstone said his team would investigate «all violations of international humanitarian law» before, during and after the conflict that ended Jan. 18. «It's in the interest of the victims. It brings acknowledgment of what happened to them. It can assist the healing process,» he told reporters in Geneva. «I would hope it's in the interests of all the political actors, too.»
