RAMALLAH, July 12, 2015 (WAFA) – Palestinian Arabic dailies focused in their Sunday issue on the Israeli army’s announcement that it has opened an investigation into criminal decisions taken by a high-ranking Israeli military officer during last year’s onslaught on Gaza.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida and al-Ayyam said a lieutenant colonel in the Israeli army will face allegations that he ordered the shelling of a medical clinic in the northern Gaza City neighborhood of Shujaiya in retribution for the death of one of his soldiers killed the a day before by a Hamas sniper.

Al-Ayyam added that Israel opened this investigation to avert a potential one by the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza conflict.

To be noted, The United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza conflict shared a press statement on the UN Human Rights website, saying it has gathered “substantial information pointing to the possible commission of war crimes by both Israel and Palestinian armed groups.”

In a different subject, al-Ayyam said in a report that 11 years after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) voiced its opinion into the Israeli Annexation Wall, Israel has so far completed the construction of 62% of the Wall which de facto annexed large swathes of land in the West Bank.

Al-Quds said Israeli settlers attacked a private-owned Palestinian land near the village of Deir Istya in the West Bank and uprooted about 80 olive saplings.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida reported on the death of Saudi Arabia’s ex-foreign minister Saud al-Faisal.

Al-Ayyam said President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah delayed an intended cabinet reshuffle until after the Muslim holiday of Eid el-Fitr.

It said an Israeli reconnaissance aircraft crashed near the Lebanese city of Tripoli on Saturday.

M.N./T.R.