TEL AVIV - Hardline Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has set up a team to outline Israel's response to a UN report on the Gaza war which has placed it under massive diplomatic pressure, officials said on Monday.
The hardline premier nevertheless ruled out setting up new inquiry committees to examine the army's conduct during the 22-day military offensive that Israel launched on December 27 where 1,400 Palestinians (mainly civilians and a third of whom children) and 13 Israelis were killed.
"There will be no investigation committee that will question soldiers and commanders in the IDF (Israeli army) because the existing procedures within the IDF are excellent," an official quoted Netanyahu as saying.
Netanyahu held talks on Sunday evening with top representatives of several government ministries and the army "to discuss the sensitivities and problems the report poses on Israel's diplomacy, the international laws of war and world public opinion," spokesman Mark Regev said.
"The prime minister asked the officials to put forward their recommendations on how to deal with the different aspects," he said.
Israel came under blistering international criticism and pressure after the United Nation's Human Rights Council last week adopted the Goldstone report.
Israel called the endorsement of the report a "diplomatic farce" which harms Middle East peace efforts.
Richard Goldstone, who led a fact-finding mission, concluded that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.
Goldstone recommended that the conclusions of the report be forwarded to the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court at The Hague if Israel and Hamas fail to conduct credible investigations into the conflict within six months.
Israel has launched a major public relations offensive against the Goldstone report while at the same time campaigning to amend international laws of war.
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