Israel must investigate Gaza war crimes: US

Israel must investigate allegations that its army violated international law during its three-week assault of the impoverished and blockaded Gaza Strip, the new U.S. envoy to the United Nations said on Thursday.

In related news, sixty U.S. lawmakers urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to give emergency funds to the U.N. relief agency for Palestinian refugees to help rebuild Gaza and to urge Israel to allow patients out of Gaza while working on a viable solution to end the humanitarian crisis.

Allegations against Israel

Ambassador Susan Rice said in her debut speech before the U.N. Security Council: "We expect Israel will meet its international obligations to investigate and we also call upon all members of the international community to refrain from politicizing these important issues."

Rice said that Hamas had been guilty of violating international law "through its rocket attacks against Israeli civilians in southern Israel and the use of civilian facilities to provide protection for its terrorist attacks."

"There have also been numerous allegations made against Israel some of which are deliberately designed to inflame," she told the council during a meeting on international humanitarian law.

During the campaign, Israel fired on several U.N. installations in Gaza, including schools, where hundreds of Palestinians had been seeking shelter from the fighting. Israel rejects allegations that its army was guilty of war crimes.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said there would also be a U.N. investigation of the deadly attacks on United Nations sites in the Gaza Strip.

We expect Israel will meet its international obligations to investigate and we also call upon all members of the international community to refrain from politicizing these important issues

Susan Rice

Indispensable UN

Rice made it clear that the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama had a very different view of the role of the United Nations from George W. Bush's government, whose officials were often suspicious of the world body and occasionally spoke of it with disdain.

She said Obama's long-term goals included enhancing global peace and security, fighting terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, dealing with climate change, alleviating poverty and improving respect for human rights worldwide.

"The United Nations is indispensable for advancing these goals and making our world a better, safer place," she said.

She also hinted that Obama had a different attitude towards The Hague-based International Criminal Court, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal.

President Bill Clinton's administration had signed the ICC treaty, which was never ratified by Congress. Bush later rejected the idea of ever joining the court.

"The International Criminal Court, which has started its first trial this week, looks to become an important and credible instrument for trying to hold accountable the senior leadership responsible for atrocities committed in the Congo, Uganda and Darfur," Rice said.

More than 1,300 Palestinians were killed during air, ground and sea assault of Gaza. Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians also died in "Operation Cast Lead."

The United Nations is indispensable for advancing these goals and making our world a better, safer place

Susan Rice

US lawmakers urge Clinton

Meanwhile, sixty U.S. lawmakers have urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to give emergency funds to the U.N. relief agency for Palestinian refugees to help rebuild Gaza.

In a letter dated Tuesday, the House Democrats also said Israel should allow critically ill patients to be transported out of Gaza and into Israel, the West Bank and Jordan for treatment.

"We therefore urge you to express this concern directly to Israeli government officials," they said in the letter, which was obtained by AFP.

The representatives focused in their letter on worries about the flow of food and humanitarian goods into Gaza as well as medical services and reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed by Israeli strikes.

They noted that the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) estimated financial needs of nearly $350 million to rebuild their own infrastructure and keep providing essential services to the Palestinians in Gaza.

"Failure to address this humanitarian emergency has the potential to produce a crisis of even more unspeakable proportions. We therefore respectfully request that the State Department release emergency funds to UNRWA for reconstruction and humanitarian assistance," the lawmakers said.

They also asked that Clinton direct her staff to provide, no later than Feb. 13, a list of "actions taken to date and the strategy you will pursue to address the humanitarian crisis."

"With the ceasefire now in effect, it is critical that the United States play a leading role in alleviating the suffering of civilians in Gaza and we respectfully urge your assistance in this task," they said.

Failure to address this humanitarian emergency has the potential to produce a crisis of even more unspeakable proportions. We therefore respectfully request that the State Department release emergency funds to UNRWA for reconstruction and humanitarian assistance

Lawmakers urge Clinton

Netanyahu leads election

Many analysts have said that some of the driving force behind the attack on Gaza was a war for Israeli between the various parties in Israel vying for the country's top spot in the upcoming Feb. 10 elections.

According to an opinion poll published Friday, Hawkish former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained in the lead to regain the premiership when Israelis head to the polls.

Netanyahu's Likud party, which currently has 12 MPs, would garner 28 of the 120 parliamentary seats, and could lead a 65-mandate rightwing bloc, according to the survey published by the Maariv daily.

The ruling Kadima party of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni would obtain 23 seats, as compared to the 28 mandates it currently holds.

The far-right Israel Beiteinou party led by MP Avigdor Lieberman would get 16 mandates, while Defense Minister Ehud Barak's Labor party would obtain 17.

The opinion poll was conducted by the Teleseker institute among 600 potential voters. It has a margin of error of four percent.