Hamas welcomes UNHRC endorsement of Gaza report

Hamas has welcomed a UN Human Rights Council's (UNHRC) endorsement of a fact-finding report on Israel's war in the Gaza Strip.

On Thursday, Taher al-Noono, spokesman of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, told reporters that Hamas thanks the countries that voted in favor of the report.

Of the 47-member body, 25 states voted in favor of a resolution tabled by the Palestinians and 11 delegates abstained. Six nations, including the United States and some European Union nations, voted against the resolution, while Britain, France and three others did not vote.

The UNHRC endorsed the controversial report that accused both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes against civilians during the 22-day conflict that ended on January 18.

"We welcome the overwhelming voting for the report and it should be immediately taken to the international court for war crimes to sue the leaders of the Israeli occupation for their awful crimes," said al-Noono.

Meanwhile, prominent Hamas member Mahmoud al-Zahar told, al-Aqsa TV "those who tried to justify delaying the vote (referring to acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas) three weeks ago were totally mistaken."

When the Palestinian Authority (PA) asked to delay the voting until March 2010, Hamas accused Abbas and the PA of a "great treason against the blood of the war's victims."

"In the beginning they encouraged the Israeli occupation for its aggression on our people, and now they hope to see Hamas together with Israel into the same dock," said al-Zahar.

The UN-ordered Goldstone report on Israel's offensive in Gaza details what investigators call Israeli actions "amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity."

The 575-page report, written by South African war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone and three other international experts, accuses the Israeli army of the deliberate killing of Palestinian civilians among other instances of war crimes.

More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed during three weeks of Israeli land, sea and air assault on the impoverished coastal sliver, which remains under a crippling Israeli siege, in place since June 2007. The offensive also inflicted $1.6 billion of damage to the Gaza economy.