Goldstone. Expressed shock
Photo: AFP
Gaza businessmen want compensation for war damage
Gazans tell head of UN probing committee they want Israel to pay for damage caused by IDF offensive
Gaza businessmen on Wednesday demanded of a UN investigation committee that Israel compensate them for the damage sustained by their businesses during the IDF offensive
in the Strip in January.
Judge Richard Goldstone, who heads the committee, met with the group of businessmen while on a tour of Gaza, during which he observed Palestinian homes that were damaged during the war. He also visited families who lost loved ones.
Goldstone tours Gaza with committee (Photo: Reuters)
The men handed the judge reports on the damage and called on him to ask that Israel be placed on trial. The judge's affiliates said he expressed shock at the destruction in Gaza.
Israel had previously announced it would not cooperate with the UN probe. Defense Minister Ehud Barak explained that this was because by its very nature it cannot be objective.
"The mandate that the Goldstone Committee got is to look into war crimes in regard to the operation in Gaza and from our experience, we well know that they will never be able to talk to the other side and to penetrate or to interrogate the series of terrorist operations along years, including thousands of rockets and missiles fell upon the heads of Israeli citizens in order to get an unbiased conclusion," he said.
The UN committee began its investigation into whether Israel committed "war crimes" during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza on Monday.
"We have come here to see, to learn, to talk to people in all walks of life; ordinary people, governmental people, administrative people," Goldstone told reporters.
