(RTTNews) - The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday passed a resolution endorsing a report submitted by a UN-appointed investigating committee that probed alleged war crimes by Israeli forces and Hamas militants during the December-January Gaza conflict.

The resolution was passed in a 114 to 18 vote, with 44 abstentions. It came as no surprise as the resolution was widely expected to be passed, with most of the Arab and Non-Aligned Movement countries in the 192-nation assembly supporting the motion. But unlike UN Security Council resolutions, the General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding.

The adoption of the resolution by the Assembly came a day after it began a debate to decide on the endorsement of a draft resolution that calls for launching independent investigations into allegations of war crimes if Israel and Hamas fails to carry out their own internal investigations into the allegations within three months.

The resolution demands both Israel and Hamas carry out separate internal investigations that "are independent, credible and in conformity with international standards" into allegations of war crimes committed by their forces during the Gaza conflict.
The resolution requires UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to report back to the General Assembly after three months about the progress made in the internal investigations carried out by Israel and Hamas about the conduct of their forces during the three-week war.

It also calls on Ban to forward the report to the UN Security Council for possible action if Israelis and the Palestinians fail to conduct their own investigations into alleged war crimes within three months, as recommended in the report.

The UN General Assembly vote on the Gaza war crimes report came just a couple of days after the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to condemn the report, which was compiled by a team of UN investigators headed by South African Judge Richard Goldstone. A non-binding resolution approved by the House described the report as "irredeemably biased".

Earlier, the UN Human Rights Council, a 47-member inter-governmental body within U.N. for protecting and promoting human rights globally, had voted on January 12 to set up the probe into the alleged human rights violations by Israeli forces against the Palestinians. Richard Goldstone was then appointed as the chief of the 15-member UN team set up to investigate alleged violations of international rules of engagement during the Gaza conflict.

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