UN General Assembly begins debate on Gaza report

The United Nation's General Assembly has begun debating an investigative UN report charging Israel with war crimes during the Gaza war.

If endorsed, the 192-member assembly could request a formal debate in the Security Council, which has the power to open a war crimes prosecution at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Some 43 speakers are scheduled to take the floor during the debate, called by Arab nations with the backing of the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Unlike Security Council resolutions, the General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding.

The report, prepared by the respected South African judge and former war-crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, calls for the prosecution of senior Israeli officials in the International Criminal Court at The Hague if Tel Aviv fails to launch its own investigations into the Gaza war under international scrutiny within six months.

The US, Israel's staunchest ally, however, is widely expected to veto any call for the ICC action against the Israeli officials. The United States has made a routine practice out of vetoing any Security Council resolution that is even critical of Israel, in effect giving Tel Aviv a free hand in continuing to violate the rights of the Palestinian population, as well as the territorial integrity of its neighbors, Lebanon and Syria.

In his address, Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian observer to the United Nations, said that the Israeli military onslaught "was planned in all of its phases as a deliberately disproportionate and systematic attack aimed at punishing, humiliating and terrorizing the Palestinian civilian population."

The General Assembly is expected to vote on the issue on Thursday.