Netanyahu on offensive over weapons cache

JERUSALEM, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said world attention should focus on Hezbollah weapons rather than war crimes allegations in the Goldstone report.

The Israeli army said it unloaded 36 containers of weapons at the Israeli port of Ashdod before allowing the Antigua-flagged vessel Francorp to set sail Thursday. Israel claims the weapons were destined for Hezbollah militants.

Iran, Syria and Hezbollah denied the allegations. Damascus said the cargo was Syrian goods headed for Iranian markets.

Netanyahu told reporters at a defense headquarters in Tel Aviv that the weapons cache was intended to target Israeli citizens, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reports.

"This constitutes a war crime," he said.

He complained the international community should focus its attention on Iranian aggression rather than what he described as national self-defense during an offensive on the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead last December and January.

"The international community should be focusing on this, but instead, the world condemns Israel and the Israel Defense Forces and undermines our right to self-defense," he said.

South African jurist Richard Goldstone led a U.N. commission looking into the Gaza offensive. The commission report concluded Hamas and the Israeli military both likely committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.