Campaign to annul Goldstone report

(GETTY)

Israel is launching an international campaign to push the United Nations to rescind a scathing report on Israeli war conduct in Gaza two years ago, after the report's author backtracked from key allegations against the Jewish state.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet he had ordered the diplomatic offensive in response to the new admissions from international jurist Richard Goldstone, who wrote in The Washington Post at the weekend that his most serious accusation against Israel – that it deliberately targeted civilians – appeared to be wrong. He said that in hindsight his report would have been very different.

Mr Netanyahu said Mr Goldstone's comments vindicated Israel's wartime conduct and that the report, which accused both Israel and Hamas militants of possibly committing war crimes, should be scrapped.