国际英语新闻:Hamas rejects Israeli report pre-empting UN war crime investigation

GAZA, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Islamic Hamas movement rejected an Israeli report issued on Sunday arguing its 50-day large-scale military air and ground operation Israel waged on the Gaza Strip last summer was lawful.

Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said in an emailed press statement that "the report is rejected. It is the usual occupation's attempts to shift the image and turn the facts up-side-down."

"The report shows that Israel didn't commit war crimes against our people and that the Palestinians are the criminals," he said, adding that "it is pre-empting the release of findings of a UN war crimes investigation."

Israeli Radio reported earlier on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that "whoever wants a baseless automatic accusation against Israel can waste their time reading the UN report."

"The report turns the picture up-side-down. Issuing the report won't help the occupation at all in hiding the Israeli war crimes which were committed before the cameras of the journalists," said Abu Zuhri.

According to the Radio, Netanyahu accused Hamas of hiding behind non-combatants by deliberately operating in crowded Palestinian neighborhoods.

"Whoever wants to continue with baseless blaming of Israel, let them waste time reading the report by the UN commission. We, for our part, will continue protecting our soldiers. They will continue protecting us," Netanyahu said.

The inquiry by the UN Human Rights Council into possible war crimes by Israel and the Islamist Hamas militants controlling the Gaza Strip is due to publish its findings this month, according to the Israeli ynetnews website.

"The claim that Israel is carrying out its own investigation means that Israel wants to escape from being sued in the International Criminal Court. This won't help to hide the fact that awful crimes were committed," said Abu Zuhri.

On July 8, Israel waged a large-scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip to rein on militants to prevent them from firing rockets into Israel or digging tunnels that go into Israel for attacks.

More than 2,145 Palestinians and 70 Israelis were killed and 11,000 injured, besides large destruction in housing and infrastructure that kept tens of thousands of Palestinians homeless.