GAZA - Hamas has expressed regret for the deaths of Israeli civilians in Palestinian rocket attacks during fighting in Gaza a year ago. Israel dismissed any apology for the three non-combatants hit by rockets from Gaza in the war as insincere. In a report by a committee set up by Hamas to examine UN allegations of war crimes by its fighters, which was delivered to the United Nations this week, the authors said: "We regret any harm that may have befallen any Israeli civilian. "We hope the Israeli civilians understand that their government's continued attacks on us were the key issue and the cause," added the report, of which Reuters obtained a copy. In response, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said on Friday: "For years Hamas has boasted about deliberately targeting civilians, either through suicide bombings, by gunfire or by rockets. Who are they trying to fool now?" At least one senior Hamas official, who declined to be named, said the movement remained ready to conduct "martyrdom operations" -- suicide bombings of Israeli buses, cafes and the like, which have not, however, been seen for several years. The Hamas report, after listing Palestinian grievances such as the Israeli embargo on Gaza, reaffirmed comments by officials of the 22-year-old Islamist movement that its improvised rockets were fired purely defensively and were aimed at Israeli military targets. They simply lacked the necessary accuracy, Hamas said. "It should be noted that the Palestinian resistance ... is not an organised army that possesses developed technological weapons," the report said. "It may target a military site or a tank position and their fire goes astray ... and hit a civilian location, despite their efforts to avoid hurting civilians." Some 1,400 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, were killed in a three-week Israeli offensive launched on Dec. 27, 2008. Both Hamas and Israel were urged by UN investigator Richard Goldstone in September to conduct credible inquiries into possible war crimes committed by their forces.
