The Israeli army has launched an investigation into the shelling of a UN school in the Gaza Strip while dismissing several other allegations of misconduct during a bloody war last July-August.
The Palestinians are threatening Israel with action at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged war crimes during the conflict, a move that could also open up the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which runs Gaza to investigation.
The Israeli military, for its part, is pressing dozens of internal probes into its conduct during the war, which killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 72 on the Israeli side, most of them soldiers.
"Factual findings... indicated the existence of grounds for a reasonable suspicion that the strike (on the school) was not carried out in accordance with the rules and procedures applicable to IDF (army) forces," the military attorney general said in a report released late Thursday.
"As a result, the MAG (military attorney general) has ordered the opening of a criminal investigation into the incident," it said.
On July 30, during the height of Israel's ground invasion of Gaza, shells hit a school run by the United Nations refugee agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, that was being used as a shelter for the displaced, killing 17 people, according to the agency.
It was one of seven UNRWA schools hit during the war, during which a total of 83 schools were damaged by fire.
UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said he hoped a "proper investigation" would take place.
Source: AFP