Gaza City  - Israel's recent, 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip aimed at curbing rocket attacks from the salient killed 1,434 Palestinians, two-third of them civilians, a Palestinian rights group announced overnight, publishing the results of an investigation.

Thirteen Israelis were killed and several dozen wounded during the offensive, the victims of either ground fighting or Palestinian rockets.

The Palestinian dead include 969 civilians, 239 police officers, and 235 fighters, or members of the armed wings of Palestinian factions, said the Gaza-based Palestinian Center For Human Rights (PCHR) in a statement sent to the media.

The civilian deaths include 288 minors and 121 women.

More than 5,000 Palestinians were also injured, including 1,606 minors and 828 women.

Of the police officers killed, nearly all were killed in air strikes on the first day of the offensive, PCHR said.

It accused Israel of using "excessive, indiscriminate force."

"This claim is evidenced by the disproportionately high rate of death amongst the civilian population, when compared to that of resistance fighters," it said in its statement.

It also accused Israel of "wilfully violating" its obligation under international law to distinguish between combatants and non- combatants, because it illegally classified Hamas policemen as the former.

"Uniformed units of law enforcement agencies are not considered members of armed forces (combatants), unless explicitly recognized as such," said the agency.

It said the "excessively disproportionate civilian death toll," as well as the extensive destruction of property; Israel's target selection; its lack of precautions taken in attack; and the use of weapons such as white phosphorous in civilian areas should be investigated.

"The cases documented by PCHR constitute grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and war crimes. The widespread and apparently systematic violations of customary International Humanitarian Law witnessed in the Gaza Strip may also amount to a crime against humanity," it said.

The group urged the reopening of Gaza's border crossings, condemning the economic sanctions against the salient as "collective punishment."

Israel launched the ferocious offensive on December 27, little more than a week after the expiration of a fragile, six-month informal truce with Hamas which had already begun disintegrating in early November. The radical Islamist movement ruling Gaza had rejected calls to extend the truce.

Israel ended the offensive January 18, declaring a unilateral end of hostilities and declaring most of its goals accomplished. But since then, nearly daily rocket and mortar attacks from the strip have continued. Thus farm attempts by Egypt to mediate a new, durable truce have not borne fruit. (dpa)