Panel wraps up probe into incidents affecting UN staff in Gaza

A panel wrapped up an inquiry into seven incidents in Gaza in 2014, saying the "Israeli actions" left 44 Palestinians killed and at least 227 others injured while they were sheltered at UN facilities during the conflict in Gaza last year, a UN spokesman told reporters here Monday.

"The (UN) secretary-general transmitted today to the Security Council and other bodies the public summary of the Board of Inquiry regarding incidents affecting United Nations personnel, premises and operations in the Gaza Strip during the recent conflict," Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing.

Releasing the report on Monday, Ban condemned the attacks "as a matter of the utmost gravity" and said "those who looked to them for protection and who sought and were granted shelter there had their hopes and trust denied."

The secretary-general insisted that UN locations were " inviolable."

The issue is particularly sensitive as the locations of all UN buildings -- including schools used as shelters -- are routinely provided to the Israeli military and updated in times of conflict.

The Board of Inquiry was commissioned by the secretary-general in November 2014, and its finding were contained in a report which runs to 207 pages, including a confidential internal report.

"I deplore the fact that at least 44 Palestinians were killed as a result of Israeli actions and at least 227 injured at United Nations premises being used as emergency shelters," Ban said Monday in his letter to the Security Council accompanying a summary of the inquiry's findings.

"I am dismayed that Palestinian militant groups would put United Nations schools at risk by using them to hide their arms," Ban wrote, adding that in two cases, the militants had probably fired from the schools.

The 15-nation UN council is due to discuss the report on Tuesday, diplomats said here.

More than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed during the Gaza conflict in July and August of last year. Sixty- seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were killed by rockets and attacks by Hamas and other militant groups.

"Beyond the report's contents, it reminds us that there has still been no progress on the critical elements that would secure long-term peace for the people of the region," Haq said.

"What is needed now more than ever is a durable cease-fire, which includes an end to arms smuggling, the opening of the crossings, more progress on the reconstruction of Gaza, and greater steps toward implementing the Beach Camp accord which addressed the much needed Palestinian reconciliation," he said.

"More importantly, we need to give new momentum to the search for a resolution of the conflict in the Middle East," he said. " For this, direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations must resume, and the international community must support the process with full engagement."

In early March, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs held Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fully responsible for the failure of the Middle East peace process.

Netanyahu has to be fully responsible for the failure of the peace negotiations and the opportunities to renew them, the ministry said in a statement, adding that Netanyahu ruined the U.S. and international efforts to make the talks a success.

The direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, sponsored by the United States, had been stalled for almost one year, after deep disputes on such issues as halting Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories.

"The secretary-general expresses once again his deepest appreciation for the bravery of and outstanding efforts undertaken by UN staff members in Gaza during the course of the conflict," Haq said. "He also welcomes the professionalism displayed by the Board during the course of its work researching and analyzing the events depicted in the report."

Ban "thanks the chairman, Patrick Cammaert, and its members for concluding this inquiry," Haq said. "He also appreciates the cooperation provided by the government of Israel in the course of the Board's work. The Board also appreciated its reception by the Palestinian Authority and meetings with local authorities in Gaza. " Endite