Barhoum: IOA allegations on punishing officers attempt to evade ICC

Barhoum: IOA allegations on punishing officers attempt to evade ICC

GAZA, (PIC)– The Israeli occupation authority’s (IOA) allegation that officers were punished for shelling the Gaza Strip with phosphorous bombs was a clear incriminating evidence, Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said.

He added in a press release on Monday that the IOA has thus confessed to using those internationally banned bombs against the Palestinian people, which constituted a war crime.

Barhoum said that the IAO was trying to evade trial of its war criminals before the international criminal court (ICC) by claiming that the officers were punished.

The spokesman asked the world community to expedite trial of those Israeli war criminals.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) belied on Monday the IOA allegation that officers had faced court for using phosphorous bombs in shelling an UNRWA school in Gaza last year.

The spokesman was quoted by Hebrew media in a statement on Monday evening as saying that the commander of the IOF southern command did not put two officers to trial at a “disciplinary court” for authorizing the use of those bombs.

An Israeli foreign ministry report tabled with the UN claimed that two senior IOF officers were disciplined for exceeding their authority in a way that posed dangers on the lives of others.

The Israeli army’s chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi refuses to form an independent committee to look into accusations in the Goldstone report on IOF violations of the international laws and for committing war crimes during the IOF war on Gaza.