Obama administration cites 'bias' in Gaza report, opposes sending to Security Council

WASHINGTON, June 24 (UPI) -- The Obama administration opposes bringing a United Nations report on the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip to the Security Council for a vote, the State Department said.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday the United States continues to review the U.N. report that found evidence of war crimes on the part of both the Israeli and Hamas-led Palestinian forces. Kirby said the United States calls into question the U.N. Human Rights Council's process of appointing the investigative committee because of a "very clear bias against Israel."

"We challenge the very mechanism which created it. And so we're not going to have a readout of this. We're not going to have a rebuttal to it. We're certainly going to read it, as we read all U.N. reports," Kirby said. "But we challenge the very foundation upon which this report was written, and we don't believe that there's a call or a need for any further Security Council work on this."

The 200-page report found, among other things, 1,462 Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli fire, noting over one-third were children. It added a large number of families lost three or more members in airstrikes against residences. Six Israeli civilians died during the conflict.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said, "It is well known that the entire process that led to the production of this report was politically motivated and morally flawed from the outset, just as Israel seriously considered every complaint, no matter its origin. It is regrettable that the report fails to recognize the profound difference between Israel's moral behavior during Operation Protective Edge [the Israeli campaign in Gaza] and the terror organizations it confronted."

Ed Adamczyk contributed to this report.