Israeli UN Ambassador Ron Prosor
Israeli UN Ambassador Ron ProsorReuters

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations issued a scathing condemnation of the UN Human Rights Council's report on last summer's war with Gazan terrorists, branding council members as "the soldiers of Hamas."

Ambassador Ron Prosor noted that the findings of the committee - which censured Israel while largely ignoring Palestinian abuses - supplemented moves by the Palestinian Authority to attack Israel diplomatically.

"The Palestinians have moved the battlefield to the United Nations," he said.

"The UN is the true frontlines, the Human Rights Council serves as the soldiers of the Palestinians and Hamas, and this biased report is their weapon."

"The UN has been taken hostage by terrorist organizations, and in this battle the international community will lose," he added. "If we continue to give legitimacy to this attack, we will all pay the price."

Echoing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Prosor vowed that attempts to use the UNHRC and such reports to tie Israel's hands military and prevent it from exercising its legitimate right to self-defense would fail.

"Israel will continue to act with force and determination against Hamas, an internationally recognized terror organization calling for its destruction," he said.

"In defending itself against attacks, Israel acted according to the highest international standards. As a democracy committed to the rule of law, Israel will continue to investigate alleged wrongdoing in accordance with international standards and to cooperate with those UN bodies that conduct themselves in an objective, fair and professional manner."

But, he insisted, "Any comparison between IDF soldiers who seek to defend innocent civilians, and the terrorists who indiscriminately target Israelis while deliberately endangering Palestinians is completely unacceptable."

Prosor is the latest in a string of Israeli officials to condemn the report, which Education Minister Naftali Bennett branded an attempt to "restrict soldiers who protected this country's citizens; it's trying to tie our hands."