Israel's military said on Wednesday it had opened five criminal investigations into its Gaza war operations, including attacks that killed four Palestinian children on a beach and 17 people at a United Nations school, according to The Associated Press.
The internal inquiries could help Israel challenge the work of a United Nations Human Rights Council commission of inquiry into possible war crimes committed by its forces and Palestinian militants in the 50-day conflict in July and August, the AP reported.
Israel has long accused the 47-member state council of being biased against it and says Hamas Islamists, who launched rocket attacks on Israeli towns, operated in residential areas and bear ultimate responsibility for Palestinian civilian casualties, according to the AP.
As fighting raged, military chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz ordered a committee to examine "exceptional incidents" that resulted in Palestinian civilian casualties, the AP reported.
As a result, 44 cases are being reviewed and dozens more are in the pipeline, according to the AP. So far, 12 cases have already been examined by the military's top legal officer.
The Israeli military described the death of the children on the beach, it initially said naval shelling killed them, as a "tragic outcome," adding that Hamas fighters were the intended target, according to the AP. It said the Beit Hanoun school was hit by errant fire and the area around the facility had been used by militants to launch rockets.
During the war, weaponry was found by the U.N. in three of its schools, but not in the one in Beit Hanoun, the AP reported.
The officer said the military was also looking into incidents in which other U.N. facilities were apparently hit, and that in all of its investigations it hoped to gather testimony from Palestinian witnesses with the help of international organizations working in Gaza, according to the AP.
