A UN mission to be led by South Africa cleric Desmond Tutu to investigate last month's killing of 19 civilians in Gaza under Israeli shelling has been called off because Israel did not authorise the trip, a spokeswoman said today.
The Nobel Peace laureate, who was asked to head the team by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, had other engagements and could not wait any longer for Israeli permission, she added.
"It has been cancelled. We were supposed to go yesterday," spokeswoman Sonia Bakar said.
The United Nations' top human rights body condemned the November 8th deaths at Beit Hanoun and last month voted to send a mission to investigate the incident.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokeswoman said Israel had investigated, acknowledged its mistakes and saw no role for the UN mission.
"The commission was sent on the premise that Israel targets civilians and it did not take into account the daily rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians," she said.
The 47-state Human Rights Council, which in June replaced the UN's discredited Human Rights Commission, has already passed seven resolutions condemning Israeli actions in Palestinian territory and in Lebanon and held three special sessions dedicated to Israel.
Although Israel has accepted visits by special UN investigators on human rights, it has never agreed to any mission of inquiry from either the commission or its council successor.