The UN Human Rights Council has endorsed a report that accused both Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas of committing war crimes in Gaza.
In a special session in Geneva, 25 of the body's members voted in favour of the resolution that chastised Israel for failing to cooperate with the UN mission led by South African jurist Richard Goldstone. Another six voted against and 11 abstained.
Both Israel and Hamas have rejected the charges in the 575-page Goldstone report, which concluded that Israel used disproportionate force, deliberately targeted civilians, used Palestinians as human shields, and destroyed civilian infrastructure during its December 27th - January 18th incursion into the Gaza Strip to root out Palestinian rocket squads.
It accused Palestinian armed groups including Hamas of deliberately targeting civilians and trying to spread terror through rocket attacks on southern Israel.
Nearly 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during the three-week conflict.
The report calls for the UN Security Council to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court if the Israelis or Palestinians fail to investigate the alleged abuses themselves.
But the resolution agreed in Geneva simply calls for the U.N. General Assembly to consider the Goldstone report and for UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon to report back to the Human Rights Council on Israel's adherence to it.
Such moves would at a minimum keep up pressure on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu who Washington is trying to convince to commit to a "two-state solution" that previous Israeli governments have signed up to.