UN Gaza war crimes probe unlikely to lead to prosecutions

A VETERAN UN war crimes investigator acknowledged his probe of possible war crimes by Israel and Hamas – which included interviewing dozens of victims and poring through the files of human rights groups – is unlikely to lead to prosecutions.

Israel has refused to cooperate, depriving his team access to military sources and victims of Hamas rockets. And Hamas security often accompanied his team during their five-day trip to Gaza last week, raising questions about the ability of witnesses to freely describe the militant group’s actions.

But the chief barrier remains the lack of a court with clear jurisdiction to hear any resulting cases stemming from the investigation into Israel’s three-week offensive in Gaza which ended in January and was designed to stop years of Hamas rocket fire into southern Israel.