UN investigator: Gaza war report will be balanced

A United Nations report on Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza at the start of the year will be fair, balanced and unbiased, Israel Radio quoted the head of a team of UN investigators as saying on Saturday.

Richard Goldstone made the pledge during an interview with Channel 1 that was aired Saturday, Israel Radio said, in which he noted that the report would also deal with the 2006 abduction of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit by Gaza militants.

Goldstone, a South African judge who prosecuted war crimes in the former
Y ugoslavia and Rwanda, added that he had initially declined the UN's request that he lead the investigation, according to Israel Radio.
The judge only agreed to head it after the president of the UN Human Rights Council assured him that the report would be balanced, he said.

In response to a question on why the UN did not launch a probe into the years of Gaza rocket fire against southern Israel, Goldstone, who is Jewish, said non-governmental groups had already raised this issue, and that Israel itself did not request this at the UN Security Council.

Goldstone reportedly told the TV station that he tried to persuade Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to approve official Israeli cooperation with the committee, but his request was rejected.

The IDF says that a total of 1,166 Palestinians were killed in the operation, the majority of whom were militants; Palestinians, however, say that more than 1,400 were killed, including over 900 civilians.

Israel's stated goals in the war were to halt the cross-border rocket fire and to destroy the infrastructure of the militant group Hamas, which rules the coastal strip.

The UN team's final report on the conflict is expected to be released toward the end of September.