-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The U.N. Council for Human Rights began debate Thursday over whether to adopt the recommendations of a controversial U.N. report examining the three-week winter war between Israel and the militant group Hamas in Gaza . An Israeli soldier sits on a tank on the Israel-Gaza border just before fighting began in December 2008 . The report , based on a fact-finding mission led by former South African jurist Richard Goldstone , was released last month and concluded that Israel and Hamas had both committed `` actions amounting to war crimes , possibly crimes against humanity . '' Speaking at the start of the meeting , Israeli Ambassador Aharon Leshno Yaar blasted the United Nations for even holding the special session . Yaar said it `` had nothing to do with human rights and everything to do with Palestinian politics . '' He said adoption of the `` biased '' recommendations of the Goldstone report , which calls for further action by the General Assembly and Security Council if both sides do not conduct credible investigations , would constitute a `` reward for terror '' that `` will set back hopes for peace in the region . '' Previously , Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Palestinian Authority that pushing action on the Goldstone report would deal `` a mortal blow '' to the peace process . The council received the report September 29 but took no action , after a request by the Palestinian Authority to defer discussion for six months . The Palestinian Authority government of Mahmoud Abbas came under withering domestic criticism for the move and was accused of succumbing to Israeli and American pressure to drop the issue . Abbas reversed course Sunday and in a televised address told Palestinians that he was seeking immediate debate within the Human Rights Council and vowed to work `` to punish everyone who was responsible for the hideous crimes committed against our children , our men and women -- especially in our dear Gaza . '' Ibrahim Khraishi , the Palestinian Authority 's U.N. ambassador in Geneva , said Israel had rebuffed the Palestinian Authority 's conciliatory move to defer debate on the report and instead had answered `` with even more grave violations of the rights of Palestinians '' in the form of restrictions of movement and housing demolitions in East Jerusalem . The 47-member Human Rights Council is expected to vote on the resolution on Friday . The draft resolution goes beyond the Gaza conflict . It `` strongly condemns '' measures taken by Israel limiting Palestinians ' access to their properties and holy sites `` on the basis of national origin , religion , sex , age or any other discriminatory ground . '' It further condemns `` Israeli violations of human rights in Occupied East Jerusalem , particularly the confiscation of lands and properties , the demolishing of houses and private properties , the construction and expansion of settlements , the continuous construction of the separation wall , changing the demographic and geographic character of East Jerusalem , the restrictions on the freedom of movement of the Palestinian citizens of East Jerusalem , as well as the continuous digging and excavation works in and around Al-Aqsa mosque and its vicinity . '' There is an ongoing dispute about the number of people killed in the three-week military offensive that Israel called Operation Cast Lead , which began December 27 and ended January 18 . The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights put the death toll at 1,419 and said 1,167 of those were non-combatants . The Israeli military released its own figures earlier this year , saying that 1,166 people were killed , 60 percent of whom were `` terror operatives . ''