JERUSALEM — In a pre-emptive strike against a forthcoming United Nations report on the war last year between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday issued a lengthy paper arguing that its troops adhered to international law and blaming the militants for most of the civilian casualties in Gaza.

Israel has refused to cooperate with the United Nations Human Rights Council’s inquiry into the 50-day conflict, denouncing it as biased. With the council expected to publish its findings as soon as Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Anyone who wants to continue with an automatic indictment against Israel, which is baseless, can waste his time reading the U.N. commission report.”

Mr. Netanyahu suggested instead that people read the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s 280-page study of the operation, or one produced over the weekend by five former generals from other countries. They are among a dozen in-depth reviews by human rights organizations, pro-Israel advocacy groups and Israel’s military promoted in recent months as an intense propaganda war continues long after the last bombs were dropped.

“The question is actually not what exactly happened, because you can look at this very complicated situation from very different perspectives. The question is who is trying to feed the public discourse and for what mission,” said Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, a media expert at the Israel Democracy Institute. “The interesting thing is that the Israeli government has tried a new tactic, to give its own — one-sided perhaps, but its own — report before the U.N. would publish, so that Israel won’t have only to react but will be able to lead the discussion.”