Gaza – Ma’an – Accusing Hamas of being against the Goldstone report is a “desperate attempt to cover the crime of withdrawing the vote at the Human Rights Council,” de facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Wednesday.

Hamas dealt with the committee during the duration of its investigations in Gaza, Haniyeh said, and will continue to deal with the realities of the report. He said media coverage of an alleged Hamas rejection of the UN-mandated Goldstone report was unsubstantiated.

Speaking at a sit-in protest in Gaza organized by victims and families of victims of Israel’s war on Gaza last winter, Haniyeh explained, “If there is a concern about how the report will affect the peoples’ right to resistance vis-à-vis the Goldstone report, that in no way means we have withdrawn our support for the document in general.”

Haniyeh said de facto government personnel would offer up their total support to the Goldstone report mission, “offering all we can to convict the Israeli occupation.” The Hamas leader also said he hoped Israeli leaders would be held accountable at the International Criminal Court.

“We are for a serious, national effort ahead of dealing with this document and implementing its recommendations,” he said, comparing the de facto government’s reaction with the Israeli position. Israeli officials refused to allow the UN-mandated fact finding mission into the country, so organizers were forced to enter Gaza via Egyptian Rafah, and fly residents of Israel and dozens who live in the Negev towns like Sderot to Geneva to give testimony on life under projectiles fired from Gaza. On Wednesday an Israeli member of the Knesset ripped up the report on the floor of the government house.