The debate comes a day after the UN Security Council also discussed the report, during which the Palestinian Authority demanded that Israel be punished for war crimes.

Riad al-Maliki, the Palestinian Authority's foreign minister, said at the Security Council meeting in New York on Wednesday that the UN should take action against Israel for its "savage attack" on the territory.

"The credibility and foundations of international human rights and humanitarian law as well as of the UN as a whole is at stake," he said.

"The world has for too long witnessed Israel's impunity, knowing fully well that this has been repeatedly fuelled by the lack of punishment and accountability."

'Credible investigations'

The report, which was written by a panel led by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge, accuses Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It also accused Hamas, which has de facto control of Gaza, of war crime violations, but reserves most of its criticism for Israel.

Palestinians are circulating a draft resolution for the human rights council debate on Thursday, which among other things, calls on Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, to monitor whether Israel and Hamas conduct credible investigations into the alleged abuses during the war.

Ban urged "all of the parties to carry out credible domestic investigations into the conduct of the conflict without delay", Lynn Pascoe, the UN under secretary general for political affairs, told the security council meeting on Wednesday.

Al-Maliki told Al Jazeera that the Palestinian Authority's "intention is to shed light on the report and to prepare the stage for what will happen at the UN Human Rights Council".

"I think it is very important when 44 countries participate in the deliberation, highlighting the importance of the report," he said.

Report 'supports terror'

But Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister who oversaw the three week offensive against Gaza, condemned Goldstone's findings.

In a statement earlier on Wednesday, he said: "The Goldstone report is a lie, distorted, biased and supports terror.

"Adopting the report might grant support for terror organisations around the world.
 
"Democratic states need to understand that endorsing it will severely harm their abilities to cope with terror organisations and terror in general."

And Gabriela Shalev, Israel's ambassador to the UN, did not refer at all to the Goldstone report during the meeting on Wednesday, but dismissed its findings before the debate even began.

"I regret to say that the Goldstone report is one-sided, biased and therefore wrong - just as the forum and mandate that established its mission," she said.

'Not justifiable'

The Goldstone report recommends that its conclusions be sent on to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor in The Hague if Israel and Hamas do not hold their own credible investigations within six months.

The report accuses Israel of using disproportionate force during its war against Gaza-based Palestinian fighters.

It also accuses the Israeli military of failing to protect civilians during its series of attacks on Gaza.

Israeli officials have condemned the report, saying their country had a right to defend itself from Hamas rocket attacks.

But Desmond Travers, a retired army colonel who worked with Goldstone on the report, dismissed that response.

"We examined that very carefully ... but we ruled that this was not a justifiable argument," Travers, currently with the Institute for International Criminal Investigations, told Al Jazeera.

"This report has taken the world community at large one lurch forward into the whole question of impunity," he said.

"We cannot lurch back, and I think the world at large doesn't wish to do that."

About 1,400 Palestinians – the majority of them civilians - and 13 Israelis were killed during Israel's three-week war on Gaza between last December and January, which had the stated aim of stopping rocket attacks by Palestinian fighters from the