A Palestinian independent lawmaker on Thursday called on the United Nations to impose sanctions on Israel for "the war crimes its army committed in the Gaza Strip."

Mustafa Barghouti, also the Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, said in a statement that "the UN should make firm resolutions against Israel for the war crimes it committed against the Gaza Strip population."

Israel had carried out a 22-day military air, sea and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip that ended on January 18, this year. More than 1,400 people were killed and around 5,000 injured, half of them were women and children.

"The recent UN report related to the war on Gaza had shown that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza, punished by the international law," Barghouti said. "If the law doesn't punish Israel, it will persist to commit more crimes."

During the 22-day Israeli military offensive, Israeli warplanes struck hundreds of targets, including civilians' houses, killing women and children. It also struck Hamas government and security establishments, killed militants firing rockets at Israel.

"Israel committed seven major crimes, including the use of excessive force against civilians and killing them, preventing medical crews from saving casualties and using different kinds of forbidden weapons," said Barghouti.

In addition to the use of military actions on the Gaza Strip, Israel has been sealing off all Gaza border commercial crossings for two years since Hamas movement took control of the enclave by force in June 2007.

Over the past two years, Israel has been only allowing basic kinds of products, mainly food supplies, medicine and fuels, but preventing other raw-materials used in industry, agriculture and construction.