JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel on Sunday launched a pre-emptive assault on an upcoming U.N. report into last year's war in the Gaza Strip, saying the report is unfairly biased and issuing its own report that blames Gaza's Hamas militant rulers for the heavy civilian casualties.

The diplomatic offensive set the stage for what is expected to be a contentious showdown with U.N. officials over allegations that Israel committed war crimes during the 50-day war.

Israel has long had a contentious relationship with the United Nations, saying the world body is biased. A similar report conducted by the U.N.'s Human Rights Council following a 2008-2009 war against in Gaza was harshly critical of both Israel and Hamas.

But this time around, the stakes are higher. The Palestinians have joined the International Criminal Court and are pursuing war crimes charges against Israel. The council's new report, expected as soon as this week, could play a key role in the case against Israel.

"Having on the record our view of this war is extremely important, and we have nothing to hide," Dore Gold, the new director of Israel's Foreign Ministry, told reporters at a special briefing held to unveil Israel's own 242-page investigation into the war.

Gold was accompanied by the country's Deputy Foreign Minister, Tzipi Hotovely, and governmental and military legal experts who worked on the report.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza last July 8 in response to heavy rocket fire from Hamas and other militant groups in the territory. More than 2,200 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, were killed during the fighting, according to U.N. and Palestinian officials, while 73 people died on the Israeli side.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusal …

Palestinians have said that the Israeli army violated the rules of war, which include giving adequate warning to civilians, using proportionate force and distinguishing between civilians and combatants. They have pointed to the high civilian casualty count as evidence.

In Sunday's report, Israel defended itself with the same arguments it has been making since the fighting ended, albeit with a level of detail never shown before.

Israel's core claim is that Hamas is responsible for the civilian casualties because it used Gaza's residents as "human shields" by firing rockets from residential areas and operating in schools, hospitals and mosques. It also notes that Hamas' rockets and mortar shells were aimed at Israeli population centers.

The report includes what Israel says are seized Hamas documents encouraging its fighters to move in civilian areas, knowing that it would constrain Israel's ability to act.

"We were a bit struck and surprised with the amount of documentation that we managed to recover during the operation actually indicating that this is a strategy of Hamas," said Eran Shamir-Borer, a lawyer in the Israeli military's international law department.

Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official, called the latest Israeli reports "sickening and outrageous" and said they strengthened the need for the Palestinians to seek international justice.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusal …

Israel has argued that it took unprecedented measures to avoid civilian casualties, ordering residents to evacuate through leaflets, phone calls, radio broadcasts and warning strikes with unarmed shells ahead of live airstrikes.

Shamir-Borer showed reporters what he said was a declassified "target card" that laid out the calculations Israel took before striking a suspected arms cache hidden in the home of an Islamic Jihad leader in southern Gaza.

The "operational directives" listed on the card call for destroying the arms while avoiding civilian casualties. It calls for a single airstrike on the home, at night and only after warning people to leave, and "real-time surveillance" to be on the lookout for civilians.

Shamir-Borer said the home was hit, and there was a "secondary blast," indicating weapons were stored there. The report said the army was unaware of any casualties from the strike. Shamir-Borer said the army went through a similar process in all 5,000 preplanned airstrikes carried out during the fighting, though there were hundreds of reactive strikes as well. According to the latest Israeli figures, some 44 percent of the dead in Gaza were militants, far higher than Palestinian and U.N. numbers.

Officials with Hamas, a militant group sworn to Israel's destruction, rejected the Israeli report. Izzat Risheq, a senior Hamas official, called it a "lie promoted by the occupation to cover up its crimes." He said "the hand of justice will reach the perpetrators."

The new Israeli report is part of a broader campaign aimed at blunting the coming report by the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs the weekly cabinet meeting with Cabinet Secretary A …

Over the weekend, Israel released a report compiled by a group of retired Western military officers who found that Israel met or "significantly exceeded" the international laws of war. The report was sponsored by the "Friends of Israel Initiative," a pro-Israel group of retired politicians and diplomats from around the world.

"Those who want to know the truth should read this report and read the report of the top generals," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet. "Whoever wants a baseless automatic accusation against Israel can waste their time reading the U.N. report."

Israel has had a contentious relationship with the U.N. Human Rights Council for years, saying it is stacked with countries that themselves have poor human rights records and has focused disproportionate attention on Israel.

A report by the council into the 2008-2009 war conducted by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, found evidence that Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes, though Goldstone later backed off his key allegations against Israel.

Israel has attacked the council's latest investigation since it was ordered last July. The investigation's mandate focuses on Israel's activities in Gaza, but makes no mention of Hamas attacks on Israel.

Israeli claims of bias forced the head of the investigation, Canadian law professor William Schabas, to resign early this year after it was discovered he had provided legal advice to the Palestine Liberation Organization.

But these complaints may go only so far. The upcoming report is all but certain to come down hard on Israel, giving the Palestinians a potent weapon in their case against Israel at the International Criminal Court.

Although Israel refuses to recognize the court's jurisdiction, a case against its citizens would be embarrassing and could potentially hinder Israeli officials from traveling abroad.

The case against Israel is likely to include charges that the military used excessive force in several instances of fighting, causing heavy casualties by firing artillery into crowded areas.

The Palestinians also claim that the Israeli military is incapable of investigating itself — a concern that was underscored last week when an army investigation cleared troops of any wrongdoing in an airstrike that killed four Palestinian children on a beach last summer.

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Online: http://mfa.gov.il/ProtectiveEdge/Pages/default.aspx



Netanyahu criticizes UN report on Gaza war

AKCAKALE, Turkey (AP) — Thousands of Syrians cut through a border fence and crossed over into Turkey on Sunday, fleeing intense fighting in northern Syria between Kurdish fighters and jihadis.

The flow of refugees came as Syrian Kurdish fighters closed in on the outskirts of a strategic Islamic State-held town on the Turkish border, Kurdish officials and an activist group said, potentially cutting off a key supply line for the extremists' nearby de facto capital.

Taking Tal Abyad, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa, would deprive the militant group of a direct route to bring in new foreign militants or supplies. The Kurdish advance, coming under the cover of intense U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in the area, would also link their two fronts and put even more pressure on Raqqa.

In this Turkish border village, the refugees took by surprise the Turkish troops stationed there, who were overwhelmed by the large number of people crowding the crossing. Thousands of people had been gathering for more than a day on the Syrian side of the Akcakale border crossing before they broke through Sunday afternoon.

People threw their belongings over the fence while others passed infants into Turkey over barbed wires before following through a several-meter wide opening in the border fence.

Turkish troops later brought in reinforcements and gathered up the refugees on the Turkish side of the border, preventing them from going deeper into Turkey.

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In this photo taken from the Turkish side of the border between Turkey and Syria, in Akcakale, Sanli …

Earlier Sunday, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus speaking on the refugee situation at the crossing between in Tal Abyad and Akcakale, claimed that those refugees were not fleeing fighting between Kurds and the Islamic State group, but were rather trying to escape to Turkey in case their villages are hit by U.S.-led coalition bombings.

He said Turkey was providing humanitarian aid to them on the other side of the border while taking in anyone who is sick or injured. Kurtulmus said Turkey has taken in more than 2 million refugees since 2011.

"We are of the opinion that there isn't a humanitarian tragedy there," Kurtulmus told CNN-Turk television in an interview. "Our priority is for them to remain within their border. We will continue to provide humanitarian aid to them"

Hours after Kurtulmus spoke, Turkey reversed its decision and opened the border to allow more of the refugees in, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. It said however that this time, Islamic State group militants at the border prevented them from crossing into Turkey.

It put the number of people who were waiting to cross at around 2,500. Around 13,400 Syrians have fled to Turkey since June 1, the agency said.

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In this photo taken from the Turkish side of the border between Turkey and Syria, in Akcakale, Sanli …

On Sunday, Kurdish official Idriss Naasan said that Islamic State fighters have fled from Suluk, a few kilometers (miles) southwest of Tal Abyad, and that Kurds now hold the town. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said Islamic State fighters had withdrawn. The Observatory said the Kurds are about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Tal Abyad.

The Observatory reported later that Kurdish fighters captured more villages near Tal Abyad on Sunday adding that jihadis blew up to bridges southeast and southwest of the town to prevent them from pushing forward.

"It's only a matter of time before this area is liberated," Naasan told The Associated Press by telephone from northern Syria, saying the Kurds surround Tal Abyad from the east, west and south. The Turkish border — and the soldiers there — now hem the extremists in from the north.

However, Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Observatory, said Islamic State fighters still control the road linking the Turkish border with Raqqa.

Brett McGurk, the U.S. deputy special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter the Islamic State group, told NBC's "Meet the Press" program on Sunday that Kurdish fighters and other units in Syria are scoring major territorial gains against the Islamic state group. Using an alternative acronym for the group, McGurk said the Kurdish fighters are "really giving a beating to ISIS and they're very close to cutting off the main supply route that ISIS has into its capital of Raqqa."

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In this photo taken from the Turkish side of the border between Turkey and Syria, in Akcakale, Sanli …

Since the beginning of May, members of the main Syrian Kurdish force, the People's Protection Units, or YPG, have taken more than 200 small Kurdish and Christian towns in northeastern Syria, as well as strategic mountains seized earlier by the Islamic State group.

They have pushed into Raqqa province, a stronghold of the Islamic State group. Along the way, they have picked up ammunition, weapons and vehicles left behind by the jihadis, almost mirroring the way the extremists overran Iraqi positions last year in their sweep across a third of that country.

The Islamic State group has declared areas of Syria and Iraq it holds as part of its self-declared caliphate, demanding the loyalty of the world's Muslims. Their gruesome propaganda videos of mass killings have drawn in foreign fighters, many coming in over the border from Turkey.

Even if the Kurds cut off Tal Abyad from Raqqa, the Islamic State group could bring in fighters across the border in Syria's Aleppo province, where they still hold ground. However, that would be an indirect route that could expose them to other fighting amid the long Syrian civil war against President Bashar Assad.

In Syria, a country now split mostly between Islamic militants and forces loyal to Assad, the U.S. has found a reliable partner in the YPG, the country's strongest Kurdish militia. They are moderate, mostly secular fighters, driven by revolutionary fervor and a desire to eventually have a nation of their own carved out in the region.

U.S. airstrikes continued Sunday in the area, as an Associated Press journalist on the Turkish side of the border from Tal Abyad saw one strike east of the town.

Nasser Haj Mansour, a defense official in Syria's Kurdish region, said YPG officials are coordinating with the U.S.-led coalition regarding a possible attack on Tal Abyad. He added that the aerial coverage prevented the Islamic State group from bringing reinforcements to the area.

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Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey contributed to this report.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic State militants have set up giant television screens in the Iraqi city of Ramadi and are using them to proclaim that they will seize more Iraqi territory after capturing the provincial capital last month, residents said.

Efforts by the Shi'ite Muslim-led government and its American allies to break the hardline group's control of about a third of Iraq are currently focused on Ramadi, in Sunni Muslim heartland Anbar province.

"They have started to show videos of their military operations in Iraq and also show confessions by captured soldiers," said the owner of a small food shop near one of the screens in central Ramadi.

"Some programmes are encouraging young men to abide by Islamic norms and also show military training of young men on carrying arms and how to fight," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Iraqi government, whose army has largely proven ineffective against the insurgents, relies heavily on Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias as well as on U.S.-led airstrikes to slow the momentum of Islamic State, which it describes as terrorists.

Islamic State has resorted to killing anyone it deems an opponent as it tries to create a sustainable caliphate in territory it holds in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama ordered the deployment of 450 more U.S. troops to Anbar to assist Iraqi forces in retaking territory lost to Islamic State.

The group has used social media sites and videos to gain followers, distributing footage of its fighters killing Iraqi government soldiers and religious minorities.

"It seems that they are trying to use media methods as a weapon to polish their image and also encourage young people to join them," said a civil servant in Ramadi.

Residents said compact discs of the broadcasts were being distributed at stalls near the two screens, which the militants set up by the central market and in northern Ramadi.

Iraq has descended into a second sectarian civil war since the last U.S. troops withdrew in 2011, exacerbated by Islamic State's suicide bombings and territorial gains.

The Islamist fighters are also battling government forces for control of Iraq's biggest refinery near the town of Baiji north of Baghdad. The facility has changed hands before.

On Sunday, government forces and Islamic State militants exchanged fire but neither side advanced.

In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded at a market, killing eight people and wounding over 20, police and hospital sources said.

(Reporting by the Baghdad bureau; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Susan Thomas)

Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli ministers approved a bill Sunday that would allow prisoners on hunger strike to be force fed if their life is in danger, sparking criticism from health experts and rights groups.

The cabinet's endorsement of the controversial bill was led by Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who said that prisoners observing a hunger strike, namely Palestinians, pose a "threat" to Israel.

"Alongside attempts to boycott and delegitimize Israel, hunger strikes of terrorists in prisons have become a means to threaten Israel," Erdan said on his Facebook page.

The same bill was approved by the Israeli government last year and sent to parliament for debate but the Knesset was dissolved before it could start deliberating.

The bill was initially approved in June 2014 at the height of a mass hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners during which 80 were hospitalised.

Chairman of the Israeli Medical Association, Leonid Eidelman, slammed the bill, saying force feeding prisoners against their will is "unethical".

In a letter addressed to Erdan and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, Eidelman also insisted that the IMA would "order doctors to act solely according to the rules of ethics, and not feed or nourish hunger strikers against their will."

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel stressed that force feeding was forbidden.

"Any decision on medical procedure, including feeding or nourishing a person, should be made by an independent medical team and in according to the legal rights of the patient," which include the need for consent, ACRI said in a statement.

"Hunger strikes for prisoners are a legitimate means of objection," ACRI said.

The majority of prisoners who go on hunger strike in Israeli are Palestinians in administrative detention, under which they held for renewable six-month periods without charge, ACRI said.

The Palestinian government last week warned Israel it was responsible for the health of Khadar Adnan, a detainee on hunger strike for over 40 days.

A spokeswoman for the Israel Prisons Service told AFP that besides Adnan, one other Palestinian prisoner was on hunger strike, for approximately one week.

Palestinian militant group Hamas on Sunday called for the immediate release of Adnan and Islam Hamad, a prisoner of the Palestinian Authority who has reportedly been on hunger strike for 63 days.

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