Geneva, Oct 19, (RHC).- The United Nations Human Rights Council's decision to adopt the controversial Goldstone report on the Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip reportedly increases the pressure on Tel Aviv to conduct its own investigation into alleged war crimes.

The Geneva-based council voted 25-to-6, with 11 abstentions, to endorse the report, which calls for both Israel and Hamas to investigate its allegations within the next few months. If either side fails to comply -- and Israel has so far refused to do so -- the report calls for the UN Security Council to take up the matter and consider referring it to the UN's International Criminal Court.

The U.S. is expected to exercise its veto to block such accusations from mushrooming into a full-fledged war-crimes trial. But Israelis are still likely to feel a chill abroad. Just a few weeks ago, human rights groups in the United Kingdom appealed to a British judge to arrest Defense Minister Ehud Barak on war-crimes accusations.

Headed by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, the UN inquiry accused Israel of targeting Palestinian non-combatants and systematically going after civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

Israel has refused to cooperate with the inquiry on the grounds that it would be biased and denied entry to investigators. Israel has consistently insisted that it did its utmost to avoid civilian casualties while fighting an enemy embedded in urban areas.

Promising that his organization's government would investigate the allegations of human rights violations, Hamas spokesperon Taher al-Nono said that the "Palestinian government welcomes the endorsement on the Goldstone report and thanks the friendly countries which voted in favor of the report." He added that Palestinians hope that the investigation "may be the beginning of the prosecution of the leaders of the occupation."

"The Palestinians have nothing to lose," says Ghassan Khatib, head of the Palestinian Government Media Center in Ramallah, who called the decision a victory. "This time, the Palestinian Authority is going to pursue due process in the Security Council, and all the way to The Hague."