Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- A team appointed by the United Nations said both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during Israel’s three-week military offensive against the militant group in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s military committed “grave breaches” of international law, including “willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health and extensive destruction of property,” a summary of the report said. It also said Israel used human shields, which “constitutes a war crime.”

At the same time, Hamas rocket attacks on Israel were “serious war crimes” and “may amount to crimes against humanity,” according to the summary of the 574-page report, which was released today at the UN in New York.

Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza on Dec. 27 to stop rocket attacks on its southern towns and cities from the Hamas-controlled seaside enclave. The Israeli military said during its Gaza operation that more than 10,000 projectiles had been fired from the area into Israel since 2001. A total of 24 Israelis were killed in those attacks, Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in an interview today.

At its peak, 80 rockets and mortars were being fired daily into Israel, Rosenfeld said. A similar number were being fired into Israel per day when Israel opened its offensive, and this number dropped as the operation wore on, he said.

The Hamas ministry of health in Gaza said that 1,450 Palestinians were killed during the military operation, while Israel puts the number at 1,166. The army said 13 Israelis were killed in the fighting.

Appointed in April

The four-person delegation, headed by the UN’s former chief war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, a South African, was appointed in April to examine charges that Israeli soldiers deliberately targeted Palestinian civilians and fired weapons indiscriminately that contained incendiary white phosphorus. They also looked into Israel’s contention that the firing of missiles by Hamas at population centers constituted war crimes.

Israel refused to cooperate, contending that the investigation wouldn’t be objective. The Israeli army presented the results of its own probe April 22 and rejected the allegations that it committed war crimes. The Goldstone panel said those investigations “lack the required credibility.”

Recommendations

Goldstone’s panel said the Security Council should require Israel to “launch appropriate” investigations within three months and, if that doesn’t happen, refer allegations of illegal acts to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, based in The Hague. Palestinian authorities should investigate allegations of human rights violations and release captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, it said.

Gabriela Shalev, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, said in an interview that the report was “very one-sided” and confirmed her government’s decision not to cooperate. She said the panel’s recommendations wouldn’t be respected.

“We are upset and angry,” Shalev said. “We take all precautions to respect international law.”

The report said Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and Gaza cooperated with the panel, which investigated 36 incidents in Gaza, conducted 188 interviews and reviewed 300 reports on the conflict.

The panel concluded that Israel used “disproportionate force” in Gaza and violated international humanitarian law by using white phosphorus artillery shells. Analysis of 11 attacks on Palestinian civilians revealed “no justifiable military objective,” it said.

Human Shields

“Civilians were used as human shields by the Israeli armed forces on more than one occasion,” the report said.

The panel said it “investigated four incidents in which Israeli forces coerced Palestinian civilian men at gun point to take part in house searches during the military operations. The Palestinian men were blindfolded and handcuffed as they were forced to enter houses ahead of the Israeli soldiers.”

Shalev denied that Israel’s military used human shields or white phosphorus as a “weapon.”

Israel has restricted the movement of industrial, agricultural and construction materials into Gaza since the Hamas takeover of the area in June 2007. Israel says some materials can be used for making weapons like rockets. Hamas leaders say they have the right to use armed resistance against Israel’s restrictions on Gaza.

The Goldstone panel said Israel should cease Gaza border closures and ease restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israel Blames Hamas

The Israeli army blamed Hamas for placing “the primary fighting scene at the heart of civilian neighborhoods” during the offensive. Hamas, which has the backing of Iran and Syria, is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., EU and Israel.

The report says that Hamas, by firing rockets and mortars into Israel or at the Israeli armed forces inside Gaza, “unnecessarily exposed the civilian population of Gaza to the inherent dangers of military operations“ around them and thereby violated “international humanitarian law.”

In addition, Hamas “carried out extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrest, detention and ill treatment of people, in particular political opponents, which constitute serious violations of human rights,” the report said. “The Palestinian Authority’s actions against political opponents in the West Bank also constitute violations of human rights.”

Ismael Radwan, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, criticized the report for its condemnation of the rockets.

“This report equates the victim with the aggressor, which committed the most horrible crimes against the people of Gaza,” Radwan said. “This is an attempt to satisfy the occupation and it is wrong and unbalanced.”

Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdrew all Israeli troops from Gaza and dismantled settlements there in 2005.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Varner at the United Nations at wvarner@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 15, 2009 15:54 EDT