Israel won’t cooperate on Gaza inquiry: Lieberman

JERUSALEM

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Sunday his country will not cooperate with any international inquiry into the deaths of 15 Palestinians near border with the Gaza Strip.

“The procession of hypocrites calling for a committee of inquiry must understand that there will be no such thing,” Lieberman said in statements.

“There will not be any international inquiry. We will not cooperate with any inquiry of this kind,” he said.

At least 15 Gazans were martyred and hundreds injured when Israeli forces opened fire on rallies marking the “Land Day”, an annual Palestinian commemoration of the deaths of six Arab Israeli citizens killed by Israeli forces in 1976, during demonstrations against government land confiscations in northern Israel.

Lieberman criticized the new head of the left-wing Meretz Party, Tamar Zandberg, for joining calls for launching a probe into the deaths near Gaza border, saying her party represented Palestinian, rather than Israeli, interests.

Friday’s rallies were the beginning of a six-week protest that culminates May 15 -- the day Palestinians call Nakba, or Catastrophe, when Israel was founded.

Demonstrators are demanding Palestinian refugees be allowed the right of return to towns and villages their families fled, or were driven out of, when Israel was created in 1948.