New York Congressman Eliot Engel and Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkley responded Wednesday to a United Nations report into possible human rights violations during the Gaza conflict of December 2008 and January 2009. The report from the “Goldstone Commission” alleges that both sides in the conflict committed human rights abuses. In response to the findings, Berkley and Engel released the following statement:

Washington, D.C.--“Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas terrorists in Gaza. When Israel’s population – both in the north and the south– is under attack by terrorists who fire missiles at innocent civilians day and night, they have every right to fight back and put an end to the threat. This United Nations report was biased against Israel from the very beginning and fails to see the true root of this problem – Hamas terrorists who want to destroy Israel and are willing to risk their own civilian populations – even their own children – to do so.

“Israel took every reasonable step to avoid civilian casualties, dropping leaflets, avoiding strikes when civilians were present, and making hundreds of thousands of phone calls urging people to leave unsafe areas. It is ridiculous to claim that Israel did not take appropriate actions to protect civilian populations.”