New York, October 20: The UN General Assembly will debate this year a report accusing both Israel and Palestinian resistance of war crimes during the Israeli war on Gaza that erupted at the end of 2008, an official said Monday.
Assembly president Ali Triki received the report of a fact-finding mission led by international war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone on Friday with the recommendation that it be considered by the year-end, his spokesman Jean-Victor Nkolo said.
Triki “will conduct consultations with the concerned parties and the chairs of the regional and other groups in order to set the appropriate date for the Assembly to consider the report,” said Nkolo.
“It will have to take place before December 31,” he added.
The UN Human Rights Council endorsed on Friday the Goldstone report on the 22-day conflict that erupted on December 27, 2008.
When the fighting ended, 1,400 Palestinians (mainly civilians and a third of whom children) and 13 Israelis had been killed.
Goldstone concluded that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the conflict that Israel launched.
The report also recommended referring its conclusions to the International Criminal Court prosecutor in The Hague, if Israel and Hamas fail to conduct credible investigations within six months.
Israel called the endorsement by the UN Human Rights Council a “diplomatic farce” and threatened to harm the Middle East peace efforts, but the Palestinians welcomed the resolution which they said should result in follow-up action from the UN Security Council.
Some 25 of the Human Rights Council’s 47 members voted for the resolution. Six, including the United States, voted against, while 16 others either abstained or did not vote.
Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have since sent a joint letter to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging that the report lead to improvements in the situation on the ground.
Israeli ministers weigh Gaza probe
Israeli ministers will discuss whether to set up an investigation into the Gaza war, Israeli officials said Tuesday.
The security cabinet will discuss the Goldstone report during its meeting later in the day, a senior Israeli official said.
The ministers are split on whether to set up an inquiry into the 22-day war, according to Israeli media.
The majority of ministers are against forming a commission of inquiry, but some support the measure as a way of easing international pressure on Israel, media reports said.
—Agencies