Israel refuses to cooperate with UN probe into crimes committed during Gaza conflict

Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel's ambassador to the UN and international organizations in Geneva, said in a scathing letter delivered on Thursday to the commission's head, Navi Pillay, that the probe and its chairwoman were unfairly biased against Israel.
"It is obvious to my country, as it should be to any fair-minded observer, that there is simply no reason to believe that Israel will receive reasonable, equitable and non-discriminatory treatment from the Council, or from this Commission of Inquiry [COI]," said Shahar.
"This COI is sure to be yet another sorry chapter in the efforts to demonize the State of Israel.
Last year, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) agreed to launch an investigation with a broad mandate to probe all alleged violations Israel had committed against Palestinians following its May offensive on Gaza, which killed at least 248 Palestinians including more than 60 children.
Michelle Bachelet, the former UN high commissioner for human rights, told the UNHRC at the time that deadly Israeli strikes on Gaza might have constituted war crimes, while Hamas had also violated international humanitarian law by firing rockets.
Since then, a number of international rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, have said Israeli attacks appear to have constituted war crimes.
In her letter, Shahar charged that the probe "both reflects and compounds the moral bankruptcy of the Human Rights Council’s obsessive bias against Israel, causing lasting harm to the very values of human rights and respect for the rule of law that it was intended to uphold".
Israel has repeatedly blamed Hamas for the civilian casualties, saying the group uses residential areas for cover while carrying out military activities.
But in reality, more than two million Palestinians are packed into Gaza, an area the size of the US city of Detroit. Under blockade by Israel since 2006, the area has been described as "the world's largest open-air prison".
Israel withdrew its troops from the Strip in 2005 but - citing security concerns - maintains tight control of Gaza's airspace, and land and sea borders, which has reduced its economy to a state of collapse.