By JPOST.COM STAFF


Spanish Judge Fernando Andreu cannot investigate the IAF bombing in Gaza on July 22, 2002 that killed Hamas terrorist Sheikh Salah Shehadeh and 14 others, Spain's National Court ruled Tuesday.


In this July 23, 2002 photo, people sift through the rubble of a Gaza house destroyed in an IAF strike, in which Hamas military wing head Salah Shehadeh and 14 other people were killed.

The Penal Hall of the court decided, in a vote of 14 against 4, not to proceed with the war crimes allegations against seven senior Israeli officials, including former IDF chiefs of staff Dan Halutz and Moshe Ya'alon, and former defense minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer.

The complaint was lodged by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) after Israel had refused to answer the questions from an investigative commission in August 2008.

Last week, the Spanish Congress restricted such cases in which Spain could use the principal of Universal Jurisdiction to cases in which the victims of the crime include Spanish citizens, or when those charged are living in Spain.

Shehadeh was killed when an IAF plane dropped a one-ton bomb on the apartment building in Gaza City where he was spending the night. Palestinian officials said 15 people were killed in the raid - Shehadeh, 49, his wife, a daughter, and his right-hand man, Zaher Nasser, 35, as well as nine children.

There has been no public investigation in Israel of the attack.