国际英语新闻：UN reiterates calls for "independent, credible" probes into alleged war crimes in Gaza

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN General Assembly on Friday adopted a resolution to reiterate its calls upon both Israel and Palestine to "conduct investigations that are independent, credible and in conformity with international standards into the serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law."

The Arab-sponsored draft resolution was adopted with 98 voting in favor, seven against and 31 abstentions.

The resolution also asked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report back to the 192-member General Assembly "within a period of five months on the implementation of the present resolution, with a view to the consideration of further action, if necessary, by the relevant United Nations bodies and agencies, including the Security Council."

In introducing the draft resolution to the General Assembly, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, the permanent representative of Qatar to the United Nations, told the plenary session of the General Assembly that "we believe that our meeting today constitutes yet another crucial step in the international community's efforts to uphold international law and in its struggle to end impunity, to deter future violations of international law and to promote real peace by through the exertion of serious efforts aimed at ensuring accountability and justice for the grave breaches of international humanitarian law and human rights committed during the Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip last year."

The Israeli military offensive "caused extensive loss of life and injury and vast destruction and devastation, from which the besieged Palestinian civilian population, including children and women, constitutes to regrettably and tragically suffer from to this day," he said.

For her part, Gabriela Shalev, the Israeli UN ambassador, told the General Assembly that "Israel will never neglect her duty to defend her citizens. We will do so with vigor against the Hamas, Hezbollah or any other terrorist."

The UN fact-finding panel headed by Justice Richard Goldstone of South Africa, has presented a report, known as the Goldstone report, to accuse both Israel and the Hamas militants in Gaza of war crimes during the Gaza war, which began in late December 2008 and lasted 22 days.

Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the Israeli military offensive into Gaza, which followed rockets fired into north Israel from the Gaza Strip.

The General Assembly has adopted a resolution to call for those probes to be conducted by Feb. 5 this year, but Ban said on the eve of the deadline that their efforts had proved inconclusive.