The Obama administration is criticizing a United Nations fact-finding mission that found Israel committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity in deliberately targeting Palestinian civilians during the attack on Gaza earlier this year. More than 1,400 Palestinians, over half of them civilians, were killed in the US-backed Israeli assault. The report also cited Palestinian militants for committing war crimes in firing rockets at Israeli towns. The report advises the UN Security Council to call on both Israel and Palestinian authorities to probe the allegations or face investigations by the International Criminal Court. On Thursday, the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, said the White House has “serious concerns” about the report’s focus on Israel.

UN Ambassador Susan Rice: “The United States is reviewing very carefully what is a very lengthy document. We have long expressed our very serious concern with the mandate that was given by the Human Rights Council prior to our joining the council, which we viewed as unbalanced, one-sided, and basically unacceptable. We have very serious concerns about many of the recommendations in the report.”