In Geneva, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations is to reopen a debate on the Goldstone report into the conduct of the Gaza war. Thursday's session came at the request of the Palestinian Authority, which had initially agreed to defer a vote on the controversial report to next year but later backtracked after coming under heavy criticism. The council could decide to refer the matter to the Security Council and urge it to give Israel and Palestinian authorities six months in which to mount full independent inquiries into the Goldstone allegations.

On Wednesday, the UN Security Council in New York also discussed the report, during which the Palestinian Authority demanded that Israel be punished for war crimes. Riad al-Maliki, the Palestinian Authority's foreign minister, said at the meeting in New York that the UN should take action against Israel for its "savage attack" on the Gaza Strip. "The credibility and foundations of international human rights and humanitarian law as well as of the UN as a whole is at stake," he said. "The world has for too long witnessed Israel's impunity, knowing full well that this has been repeatedly fueled by the lack of punishment and accountability."

Israel’s UN ambassador Gabriela Shalev told the Security Council that the report was “one-sided, biased and wrong”. She stated: "Instead of discussing the real and worrying questions facing the Middle East, the UN is focusing on the Goldstone report, which Israel believes legitimizes terror organizations. An ordinary person would think that an emergency UN session would be called when Gazan and Lebanese terrorists fire missiles into Israeli territory, or because of the Iranian nuclear threat.” The Security Council's regular meeting on the Middle East had been brought forward by a week after it the rejection of Libya's request for a special session to discuss the Goldstone report.

The report, which was written by a panel led by South African judge Richard Goldstone, accuses Israel of war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. It also accused Hamas, which has de facto control of Gaza, of war crime violations, but reserves most of its criticism for Israel.

Read the full statement of Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gabriela Shalev, to the UN Security Council.

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