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OPT: UN rights chief urges Israel works with Gaza probe

By Robert Evans

GENEVA, June 15 (Reuters) - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged Israel on Monday to cooperate with a U.N. team looking into whether war crimes were committed during its assault on Gaza at the turn of the year.

Pillay was speaking to the U.N.'s 47-nation Human Rights Council, which in March decided to send a fact-finding mission under South African jurist Richard Goldstone to investigate what happened in the Hamas-ruled territory during the fighting.

"All parties concerned, as well as states and the international community as a whole, should extend (to the mission) full support and cooperation," declared Pillay in a clear reference to Israel which has refused to meet the group.

Israel invaded Gaza on Dec. 27, 2008 and fighting continued until Jan. 18, 2009, leaving more than 1,000 people dead.

Pillay said the team's purpose was to investigate "all allegations of international humanitarian law and human rights violations" during the three-week Israeli action, which Israel said was launched to halt rocket attacks from Gaza.

But Islamic and other developing countries, who hold a built-in majority on the Council, insist the mission is to look into what they say were Israeli war crimes. Western countries say the investigation should be impartial and balanced.

The mission made its first visit to Gaza from June 1-5, crossing from Egypt because Israel declined to allow the team to enter its territory. Israel argues that the mission was told to find it guilty in advance.

In Gaza, Goldstone's team held meetings and interviews and visited sites where Hamas and other Palestinian groups say Israeli forces killed civilians, including some sheltering in U.N. offices.

The mission is drafting a report on its findings, and plans to return to the territory at the end of this month, Council officials said. It will also be holding public hearings in Geneva, where the Rights Council sits.

According to one Palestinian rights group, a total of 1,417 people including 926 civilians were killed during the Israeli assault on the coastal enclave of 1.5 million people.

Israel says 1,166 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, 295 of them civilians and the rest Hamas fighters and other militants. It lost 10 soldiers during the action, and says 3 civilians died during Hamas rocket fire into Israeli territory.

In her Monday speech, Pillay also called on Israel to end its economic blockade of Gaza, saying this was driving the people of the territory deeper into extreme poverty. Israel says it is allowing essential humanitarian supplies into Gaza.

(Editing by Matthew Jones)