Investigation on War Crimes during Gaza war demanded

The General Assembly renewed its demand on Friday that Israel and the Palestinians conduct credible, independent investigations into possible war crimes during the Gaza war, to be completed within five months. The Goldstone report, issued by the United Nations Human Rights Council last fall, said there was evidence that both sides, but Israel in particular, committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the three-week war in the winter of 2008-09. The resolution, which passed 98 to 7 with 31 abstentions, echoed a similar demand passed last November. Riyad Mansour, the ambassador representing the Palestinian Authority, which sponsored the resolution, said the vote indicated that “the great majority of humanity is asking for the Goldstone report to be implemented.” But other ambassadors suggested that repeated resolutions with little effect was more likely to be a sign of the report’s slow, bureaucratic death.