Israeli military strikes during last year's Gaza war killed at least 44 Palestinians and injured 227 who were taking refuge at U.N. schools, a U.N. inquiry found.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said that the report will be presented to the International Criminal Court, which the Palestinian Authority joined earlier this month to bring war crimes charges against Israel and encourage a two-state solution.
A summary of the 207-page report was released Monday, covering 10 incidents, while the full report will remain private, reported The Associated Press.
The independent board of inquiry identified one case in which a U.N. girls' school was struck by 88 mortar rounds fired by the Israeli Defense Forces. Another girls' school was hit by direct fire from Israeli anti-tank projectiles, and a third girls' school was hit by an IDF missile.
On July 30, with "no prior warning," according to the report, a series of 155 MM Israeli artillery shells hit the Jebaliya Elementary girls' school, where 3,000 Gazans who had taken shelter were sleeping. The U.N. report found that 17 or 18 people including a U.N. staff member and two of his sons were killed in the strikes, reported AP.
The report found that a "Palestinian armed group" did hide weapons at three empty U.N. schools in Gaza, and "probably" fired from two of the schools, though none of the schools were being used as shelters at the time.
Chris Gunness, spokesman for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, said in a statement that weapons were not found or fired from any "of the schools which were hit directly or in the immediate vicinity," according to the AP.
"The inquiry found that despite numerous notifications to the Israeli army of the precise GPS coordinates of the schools and numerous notifications about the presence of displaced people, in all seven cases investigated by the Board of Inquiry when our schools were hit directly or in the immediate vicinity, the hit was attributable to the IDF," Gunness continued.
The Gaza war resulted in the death of more than 2,200 Palestinians, most civilians, according to the U.N., and 72 Israelis, 66 of whom were soldiers.
Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon responded to the report, saying, "All of the incidents attributed by the report to Israel have already been subject to thorough examinations, and criminal investigations have been launched where relevant," reported BBC.
"Israel makes every effort to avoid harm to sensitive sites, in the face of terrorist groups who are committed not only to targeting Israeli civilians but also to using Palestinian civilians and UN facilities as shields for their terrorist activities."
