Bethlehem - Ma'an - The Israeli government officially condemned the UN Human Rights Council on Friday, several hours after it overwhelmingly passed a resolution backing South African justice Richard Goldstone's investigation into alleged war crimes in Gaza.

"Israel rejects the one-sided resolution adopted today in Geneva by the UN Human Rights Council, and calls upon all responsible states to reject it as well," the country's Foreign Ministry said in a statement to Ma'an.

Indeed, the resolution that was passed on Friday included components left out of the original draft that Israel and the US thwarted late last month. The successful resolution contained an updated section on East Jerusalem, condemning Israeli policy in the occupied city, as well.

The country's Foreign Ministry insisted the new resolution, which was opposed by six members of the 47-nation council, "provides encouragement for terrorist organizations worldwide and undermines global peace."

"The adoption of this resolution by the UNHRC impairs both the effort to protect human rights in accordance with international law, and the effort to promote peace in the Middle East," the statement said, vowing that Israel would "continue to exercise its right to self-defense, and take action to protect the lives of its citizens."

But the news was not all bad, according to the ministry, as Israel won a small victory on Friday since the January vote establishing the Goldstone mission was even closer to unanimous. Only one country, Canada, voted against the resolution at the time.

"Israel expresses its gratitude to those states which supported its position, and to those which, through their vote, expressed their opposition to this un-just Resolution which ignores the murderous attacks perpetrated by the Hamas and other terrorist organizations against Israeli civilians," the statement added.

The conclusions of the investigation, in fact, accused Hamas in no uncertain terms of a number of crimes, the most serious of which was its alleged targeting of civilians, predominantly in the southern Israeli cities of Sderot and Ashkelon. Three Israeli civilians were killed over the course of the operation.

According to the ministry, "The Resolution also ignores the unprecedented precautions taken by Israeli forces in order to avoid harming civilians, as well as the cynical exploitation of civilians as human shields by the terrorist groups."

That interpretation stands in contrast to the results of Goldstone's investigation, which, while accusing Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups of a number of serious crimes, did not find evidence any of them had used human shields during the assault.

Meanwhile, the Israeli peace bloc Gush Shalom urged authorities to investigate the report's findings "not because of the UN, not for fear of Goldstone, but for our self respect and for the future of Israel."

In January, the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict was established "to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might have been committed at any time in the context of the military operations that were conducted in Gaza... whether before, during or after."