JERUSALEM -- Israel has prevented the entry of a UN human rights envoy to the its territory, prior to the release of a UN report on Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip last summer, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirmed to Xinhua on Monday.
Makarim Wibisono, from Indonesia, is the UN's Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. It's the second time that he has been denied access to the Palestinian territories under Israeli occupation, after being denied entry last year.
He was barred from reaching the territories of east Jerusalem and the West Bank. Israel occupied the West Bank territories amid the 1967 war and annexed east Jerusalem in 1981.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that the reason behind the move is the biased stance of the Human Rights committee against Israel.
The Human Rights Council is set to release a report in the upcoming days on the conduct of both Israel and Hamas, the militant organization ruling the Gaza Strip enclave since 2007.
This fact-finding mission was appointed in last August by the United Nations, but Israel refused to cooperate with it after years of distrust between the body and the state over what Israeli officials say as bias in its treatment of Israel.
Israel issued its own report on Sunday regarding the Gaza war last summer as a preemptive measure. The 277-page report charged that the Israeli offensive on Gaza was lawful and accused Hamas of perpetrating "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity."
It also charged that Israel did "whatever it can" to prevent civilian casualties, blaming Hamas for carrying out their operations "within densely populated areas and civilian structures."
Also on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the upcoming UN report by calling it "a waste of time," adding that Israel "would act everywhere and as necessary in order to contend with false claims and anti-Israeli initiatives."
The United Nations has also filed complaints with the Israeli Military Advocate General (MAG), Danni Efroni, over unlawful attacks by the Israeli army while opening fire at UN facilities used as shelters during the war. These claims are under investigation by the Military Police.
On Thursday, the MAG announced that he had closed the investigation on the Israeli air strike which resulted in the death of four Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip shore last July, claiming that Israel had acted in accordance with the international law and that the figures were not identified as children.
More than 2,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in last summer's Gaza war. On the Israeli side, nearly 80 people died, mainly soldiers.
