Israeli and Palestinian leaders should launch investigations of alleged war crimes in Gaza to help rebuild trust and support peace, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Thursday.

At the opening of a UN Human Rights Council meeting on the issue, Navi Pillay said all sides in the Middle East conflict were violating international law and voiced concern that transgressors were left unpunished.

"A culture of impunity continues to prevail in the occupied territories and in Israel," she told the 47-member body, calling for impartial and prompt investigations into reported violations.

In a session due to stretch into Friday, Geneva envoys met to consider a resolution that chastises Israel for failing to cooperate with a UN-ordered fact-finding mission into the December-January war in Gaza.

In the report circulated last month, the investigators led by South African jurist Richard Goldstone accused both Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas of war crimes in Gaza, but were overall more critical of Israel than Hamas.

Israel has rejected the charges in the report and says the Human Rights Council resolution -- drafted by the Palestinians with Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and Tunisia, on behalf of non-aligned, African, Islamic and Arab nations -- threatens peace efforts.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday Israel would not be able to take "risks for peace" if it could not defend itself from attacks on its citizens.

"It's important for the principle countries, outside of this automatic majority of the United Nations, to say we are not taking part in this. We know we should act otherwise," he said.

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