Arab League to send two committees to Gaza to probe war crimes, reconstruction

The Arab League is to send two committees into the Gaza Strip on Sunday to probe Israeli war crimes during the three weeks of aggression on the Strip that left 7,000 Palestinians either killed or wounded other than the destruction of thousands of homes, schools and other infrastructure using internationally banned weapons while the other would estimate Gaza reconstruction needs.

Hisham Yousef, the director of the office of Arab League Secretary General Amr Mousa, said in a press statement that Mousa met with members of the two committees on Saturday for a review of their duties during their visit to the Strip.

He added that the legal committee would group international legal experts headed by Jean Dugard, and explained that the committee would probe the conditions in Gaza and the crimes committed against the Palestinians there.

The committee members would tackle means of dealing with those crimes legal wise, he said, pointing out that the committee would also group Arab League experts and members of a Palestinian human rights organization.

Yousef underlined that the committee would prepare a report on the violations of the international humanitarian laws and details of the Israeli war crimes in preparation for initiating legal procedures in this regard.

The second committee, which includes representatives of Arab organizations specialized in agriculture and industry, would study the means through which Arab institutions could help in reconstructing Gaza and would review the Palestinian people”s needs and means of organizing Arab efforts to reconstruct the devastated Strip.