UN to launch investigation of possible Israeli war crimes in Gaza
- The Human Rights Council ordered a probe into violations during the recent 11-day war, as well as abuses and their ‘root causes’ in the decades-long conflict
- UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet voiced particular concern about the ‘high level of civilian fatalities and injuries’ from Israel’s attacks on Gaza
The UN Human Rights Council decided Thursday to create an open-ended international investigation into violations surrounding the latest Gaza violence, and into “systematic” abuses in the Palestinian territories and inside Israel.
The resolution, which passed with 24 of the council’s 47 members in favour, will spur an unprecedented level of scrutiny on abuses and their “root causes” in the decades-long Middle East conflict.
The text, which was presented by Pakistan on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, was debated during a special one-day council session focused on the surge in deadly violence between Israelis and Palestinians this month.
03:25
‘We lost everything’: Gazans pick up pieces after conflict between Israel and Hamas ends
Opening the session, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet voiced particular concern about the “high level of civilian fatalities and injuries” from the attacks on Gaza, and warned the Israeli attacks on the enclave “may constitute war crimes”.
She also said Hamas’s “indiscriminate” firing of rockets at Israel was “a clear violation of international humanitarian law”.
Before a truce took hold last Friday, Israeli air strikes and artillery fire on Gaza killed 254 Palestinians, including 66 children, and wounded more than 1,900 people in 11 days of conflict, the health ministry in Gaza says.
A barrage of thousands of rockets and other fire from Gaza claimed 12 lives in Israel, including one child and an Arab-Israeli teenager, medics say. Some 357 people in Israel were wounded.
