Tutu infers Israel committed war crimes

South African Nobel peace prize laureate Desmond Tutu

Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu says Israel may have committed war crimes by shelling the city of Beit Hanoun in 2006.

"In the absence of a well-founded explanation from the Israeli military ... The mission must conclude that there is a possibility that the shelling of Beit Hanoun constituted a war crime," Tutu said in a report to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday.

Tutu was on a fact-finding mission under the UN to investigate the killings of 19 civilians in the city in an Israeli artillery barrage.

The Nobel peace laureate and his team were denied visas by Israel three times but the commission finally traveled to Beit Hanoun via Egypt in May - 18 months behind schedule.

The report also criticized the Palestinians for firing rockets at Israeli cities and towns.

It has drawn furious reactions from Israel with the regime's envoy to the UN, Aharon Leshno-Yaar rejecting the validity of Tutu's report.


Tutu's mission to Beit Hanoun was "another regrettable product of the Human Rights Council," Leshno-Yaar said.

The Council tasked the team to investigate the November 2006 the Palestinian-Israeli clashes.PressTV