UPDATED 2 FEBRUARY: Haaretz reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to persuade Defense Minister Ehud Barak to accept an Israeli investigation into civilian deaths during Operation Cast Lead. However, officials said that both Barak and Gabi Ashkenazi, the Chief of Staff of Israel Defense Forces, refused to yield authority to investigators from outside the defense establishment.
"The prime minister knows what he wants to do on this matter - but he does not want to bring the matter to the cabinet," a senior source close to Netanyahu said.--
With the General Assembly convening on 5 February 5 to discuss progress on the Goldstone Report and its recommendations, Israel submitted its response to United Nations over last year's Gaza War.
Palestine: Hamas Refuses An Independent Commission on Gaza “War Crimes”
The committee will reportedly have the authority to summon everyone who was in charge of the IDF investigations and any civilian who took part in the main deliberations. However, it will not have the authority to question operational commanders. The committee is likely to take testimony of lower-ranked officials, ensuring that there is no basis to send officials to international courts.
The Israeli Government said it is preparing to appoint a committee focusing on
two main areas: 1) the quality of the investigations conducted by the Israel Defense Forces into incidents and 2) decisions taken by the Cabinet, the Security Cabinet and the IDF General Staff over the use of force. The first area will establish whether the internal investigations met the relevant international standards and the second will determine whether there is a basis to Goldstone's claims that the operation was planned in advance as a punitive campaign against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, announced that he has decided to establish
an independent panel of inquiry to evaluate the accusations on human rights violations carried out by his PA security forces during the Gaza War.
On the political front, Israel slammed the Goldstone Report's "misrepresentations" in a written response submitted to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, "
Gaza Operation Investigations: Update":
As Israel has clarified before, Israel disagrees with the findings and recommendations of the Report, which reflect many misunderstandings and fundamental mistakes with regard to the Gaza Operation, its purposes, and Israel’s legal system.
Israel is committed to ensuring that every such incident is fully and fairly investigated, to ensure that lessons can be learned and that, if justified, criminal or disciplinary proceedings initiated.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak added that the Goldstone Report was "
distorted, false, and irresponsible":
This morning we handed the UN a report of the investigations and operations that took place during Operation Cast Lead. This report stresses that the IDF is like no other army, both from a moral standpoint as well as from a professional standpoint.
All of the soldiers and officers whom we sent to battle need to know that the state of Israel stands behind them even on the day after.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 10:01 
On Sunday, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, in an interview with The Guardian, said that Israel's continued activity in the West Bank was leading to a "one-state solution".