Richard Goldstone, a well respected South African judge and a former war crimes prosecutor, has been appointed as the chief of a UN team set up to investigate alleged violations of international rules of engagement during the recent Israeli offensive against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations said Friday.
Goldstone will lead a four-member UN investigation team, which also include British law professor Christine Chinkin, retired Irish army colonel Desmond Travers and former UN human rights expert Hina Jilani.
The UN Human Rights Council, a 47-member inter-governmental body within U.N. for protecting and promoting human rights globally, had voted on January 12 to set up the probe into the alleged human rights violations by Israeli forces against the Palestinians.
Gladstone is a former judge at the South African constitutional court and was the chief prosecutor on the International Criminal Tribunals for ex-Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He has also led a public inquiry into the violence ahead of South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in 1994.
"It is in the interest of all Palestinians and Israelis that the allegations of war crimes and serious human rights violations related to the recent conflict on all sides be investigated," Goldstone said in a statement on Friday after the confirmation of his appointment.
He also expressed hopes that the findings of the UN mission would make "a meaningful contribution to the peace process in the Middle East and to providing justice for the victims."
Israel had launched a 22-day offensive against the Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip on 27th December in response to continued rocket fire into southern Israel by Palestinian militants in Gaza after a previous six-month long Egypt-brokered cease-fire deal expired on 19th December.
The three-week offensive killed some 1,300 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and it was finally halted on 17th January by separate unilateral cease-fire declarations by Israel and Hamas, the radical Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.