Hamas Gives U.N. Response to Gaza War Crimes Report

Hamas officials said the group set out in a 52-page response handed to a U.N. official in Gaza that the killing of three Israeli civilians in rocket attacks during Israel's December 27, 2008-January 18, 2009 offensive was an accident and military installations had been targeted.

Up to 1,387 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, and 13 Israelis, including three civilians, were killed in the war Israel launched with the declared aim of curbing rocket attacks on its territory.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch organisation, commenting last week after Hamas released a summary of the report, said the group's "claim that its rocket attacks against Israel are not war crimes is factually and legally wrong."

Human Rights Watch, which also has criticised Israeli conduct in the Gaza war, said "hundreds of rockets rained down on civilian areas in Israel where no military installations were located."

The Hamas report came in response to a U.N. mission led by South African jurist Richard Goldstone that found Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip committed war crimes.