The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has agreed to launch an international inquiry into violations that may have been committed during Israels latest military offensive in Gaza. Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, warned earlier that Israel may have committed war crimes in its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of Palestinian civilians have been killed in the past two weeks. Pillay told an emergency debate at the UNHRC in Geneva that Israel had not done enough to protect civilians. There seems to be a strong possibility that international law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes, Pillay said, citing air strikes and the shelling of homes and hospitals. The killing of civilians in Gaza, including dozens of children, raised concerns over Israels precautions and its respect for proportionality, she said. She also condemned Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules Gaza, and other armed Palestinian groups, for their indiscriminate attacks on Israel. At the end of an emergency session, the 47-member Geneva state forum adopted a resolution presented by Palestinians by a vote of 29 states in favour, one against (the United States) with 17 abstentions (including some European Union members).[...] The resolution called for the urgent dispatch of an independent, international commission of inquiry to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 08:12:57 +0000
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