UN Chief Ban Ki Moon constituted a Gaza war inquiry headed by Patrick Cammaert

United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon on 11 November 2014 appointed a five-member panel to investigate Israeli attacks on UN shelters during the Gaza war and the discovery of Hamas weapons at UN sites. During its investigation, the panel will focus on incidents from 8 July to 26 August 2014.

The inquiry will be led by retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert. Other members of the panel include Maria Vicien-Milburn of Argentina, Lee O'Brien of America, Pierre Lemelin of Canada and K.C. Reddy of India.

Earlier in October 2014, Moon during his visit to the site of damaged UN shelters in Gaza described the three Israeli shelling of UN-run schools as a moral outrage. He announced plans to set up a probe during this visit.

However, Israel maintains that Palestinian Hamas fighters were using the schools to store weapons. It also denied that it had deliberately targeted the schools, which were being used as shelters by Palestinians during the 50-day Israeli offensive.

According to UN refugee agency UNRWA, at least five UN facilities were hit during the conflict, killing scores of Palestinians including children. As per UN and Palestinian estimates, during the 50-days fight more than 2100 Palestinians were killed of which maximum were civilians. At least 223 Gaza schools either run by the UN refugee agency or the Hamas government were destroyed in the fighting.

Apart from this panel, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva separately has set up a commission of inquiry into the Gaza offensive, led by Canadian lawyer William Schabas.