War crimes committed by both sides in Gaza: UN report

Both Israel and Palestinian militants may have committed war crimes during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, UN investigators said on Monday.

In a long-awaited report, the UN Human Rights Council team said there was evidence of "serious violations" of human rights and international law by both sides, BBC reported.

Israel dismissed the investigation as "politically motivated and morally flawed from the outset".

The conflict lasted for 50 days between July and August last year, and ended in a truce.

On the Palestinian side, 2,251 people, of whom 1,462 were civilians, were killed, the report said.

On the Israeli side, 67 soldiers were killed along with six civilians.

Israel said that it launched the offensive on Gaza to put an end to rocket fire and remove the threat of attacks by militants tunnelling under the border.

The head of the inquiry, William Schabas, quit part-way through amid Israeli allegations of bias, acknowledging he had previously done work for the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

Israel had refused to co-operate with the investigation, which it said "had presumed Israel guilty from the start".