UN War Crimes Confirmation İnfuriates Israel

A new UN report that confirms Israel's "gross negligence and recklessness" in its Christmas war on the Gaza Strip has raised hackles in Tel Aviv.

A four-member inquiry board appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday affirmed that the Israeli army had failed to protect UN personnel and civilians that had taken shelter in UN buildings.

A 184-page report, which has not been entirely published due to Ban's objection, found Tel Aviv responsible "for the deaths and injuries that occurred within the United Nations premises and the physical damage that was done to United Nations' premises.”

In a statement, the displeased Israeli Foreign Ministry branded the report as "unbalanced, biased and oblivious to the facts."

"Israel rejects the criticism in the committee's summary report and determines that in both spirit and language the report is tendentious, patently biased and ignores the facts presented to the committee," reads the statement.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was also quick to dismiss the findings, once again blaming Hamas for the casualties of the December-January operation against the strip.

The operation killed nearly 1,400 Palestinians in three weeks.

"We reject the conclusions of this report," Barak said on the issue.

"I think what is missing from the picture is the source of all this, 4,000 rockets and motor shells that hit on the heads of our civilian population for eight years before Israel went there," he added.

He made no elaboration on the 60 years of oppression Israel has brought upon the Palestinians - who are native to the land.

According to B'Tselem, the Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, from the year 2000 to 2008, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has lead to the death of 4,908 Palestinians and 1,062 Israelis.

Official Israeli statistics confirm that, the over 3,000 Qassam rockets fired into Israel in the mentioned period have resulted in the death of only fifteen Israelis.