Probe rules no wrongdoing over UN Gaza school strike

Israeli investigators have concluded that Israeli soldiers did no wrong when they bombed a United Nations school in Gaza in 2014, killing ten and injuring dozens.

The incident in the town of Rafah caused an international outcry, with the United States calling it “disgraceful” and the United Nations saying it was a “moral outrage,” but in a 21-page report published this week, the Israeli Military Advocate General (MAG) found no wrongdoing.

The UN school, which Israel had been told was sheltering more than 3,000 people displaced by the fighting, was hit in early August, just days before a ceasefire.

The MAG report said that a missile was launched targeting three men on a motorbike, who headed off a roundabout towards the school after it was fired.

“At the moment upon which the motorbike exited the traffic circle and started to travel along the road bordering the wall which surrounded the school, it was no longer possible to divert the munition,” it said.

“The strike occurred immediately after the motorbike passed by the gate of the school,” it added. “Three military operatives were among the fatalities.”

An Amnesty International report, compiled using forensic analysis, stated: “There is overwhelming evidence that Israeli forces committed disproportionate, or otherwise indiscriminate, attacks which killed scores of civilians in their homes, on the streets and in vehicles and injured many more.

“This includes repeatedly firing artillery and other imprecise explosive weapons in densely populated civilian areas during the attacks on Rafah between 1 and 4 August. In some cases, there are indications that they directly fired at and killed civilians, including people fleeing.”