UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday appointed a five-member panel to investigate Israeli strikes on UN shelters during the Gaza war, as well as the discovery of Hamas weapons at UN sites.

Ban announced plans to set up a probe during his visit to Gaza last month after describing the three alleged Israeli shellings of UN-run schools as a “moral outrage”.

Israel maintained that Islamist Hamas terrorists were using the schools to store weapons but denied that it had deliberately targeted the schools, which were being used as shelters by Palestinians during the 50-day war.

The inquiry led by retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert will “review and investigate a number of specific incidents in which death or injuries occurred at, and/or damage was done to United Nations premises,” said UN spokesman Farhan Haq.

UN officials have confirmed that Hamas rockets were found in several UN-run schools and condemned those responsible for putting civilians at risk.  

The other members of the panel include Maria Vicien-Milburn of Argentina, American Lee O’Brien, Canadian Pierre Lemelin and K.C. Reddy of India.

The UN spokesman emphasized that Ban “expects that the board will enjoy the full cooperation of all parties concerned.”

The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva separately has set up a commission of inquiry into the Gaza offensive, led by Canadian lawyer William Schabas. That commission has been denounced as a “kangaroo court” by Israel, after Schabas’s own personal anti-Israel bias was revealed.

The IDF for its part has said that in at least some of the alleged attacks the likely culprits were in fact stray rockets fired by Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

AFP contributed to this report.