Israeli army admits was "wrong" over UN ambulance rocket scandal

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JERUSALEM (AFP) - The Israeli army admitted it had been wrong to accuse the United Nations of letting its ambulances be used by Palestinian militants to transport Qassam rockets in the Gaza Strip.

In a tortuously-worded statement released late Tuesday, the army admitted it was not certain that the object placed in the back of a UN-marked ambulance in the northern Gaza Strip was a rocket, as it had previously insisted, and said its accusations were 'made in haste'.

'After a thorough review of the material, the nature of the object loaded on the vehicle cannot be determined with certainty. Thus, the determination that the object loaded was a Qassam rocket was too unequivocal and made in haste,' the statement said.

Commenting on its rapid widespread distribution of the grainy footage shot from an Israeli drone, the army said 'lessons learned will be implemented to prevent a recurrence of such an incident in the future'.