A U.N. mission to be led by South Africa's Desmond Tutu to probe last month's killing of 19 civilians in Gaza Strip by Israeli shelling has been called off because Israel did not authorize the trip, a spokeswoman said on Monday.
Tutu, 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, according to Reuters. "It has been cancelled. We were supposed to go yesterday (Sunday)," spokeswoman Sonia Bakar said.
On her part, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin said Israel had investigated and acknowledged its mistakes in the incident, seeing no reason for the U.N. 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."
