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A Palestinian family, in a tent amid the rubble of their houses, on Tuesday in Beit Hanun, northern Gaza. MOHAMMED SALEM / Reuters
Just a week after a ceasefire halted the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militias in the Gaza Strip, the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council agreed on Thursday to launch an investigation into violations. of international humanitarian law in hostilities.
The UN body adopted this resolution, presented at the Palestinian initiative, with 24 countries voting in favor, 9 against and 14 abstentions.
The investigations of the independent commission will focus on the armed conflict that for 11 days claimed more than 250 deaths, including 67 children, as a result of the Israeli bombings on the enclave, and 13 deaths in Israel, including two minors, due to the rocket launch from the Strip. The investigation will start temporarily on April 13, at the beginning of the month of Ramadan, when clashes began in the Old City of Jerusalem between groups of Palestinians and the Israeli security forces.
The urgent and monographic session of the Council was convened at the request of more than 60 UN member countries.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said during her speech that Israel's attacks on Gaza "may constitute war crimes," reports the Efe agency.
Bachelet stressed that Gazans civilians do not have the protection of an anti-missile shield, as is the case of the Israelis.
The approved resolution also asks the States to refrain from selling weapons likely to be used to commit human rights violations to the parties involved in the escalation of the war.
# SS30 vote in full: pic.twitter.com/JolPYLGAAc
- UN Human Rights Council (@UN_HRC) May 27, 2021
The Israeli Foreign Ministry rejected the resolution and announced that there will be no type of cooperation with the investigation opened by "a body with an anti-Israeli majority guided by hypocrisy and absurdity." Israel emphasizes that the approved proposal does not condemn the firing of more than 4,300 rockets towards Israel. "The Israeli security forces act with the highest ethical standards and in accordance with international law," highlighted the diplomatic statement released in Jerusalem.
The United States regretted the decision of the Human Rights Council and warned that it "may jeopardize the achievements" with the ceasefire.
A Hamas spokesman quoted by Reuters welcomed the investigation into what happened in Gaza "to punish Israel", and considered that the armed actions of the Islamist movement constituted an "exercise in legitimate resistance".
Countries that voted in favor of the investigation include Argentina, Mexico, Cuba and Venezuela, as well as Russia.
European members of the Council, such as France, Denmark and the Netherlands, abstained, while others rejected the resolution, in the case of the United Kingdom, Germany and Austria.
Brazil, whose president, Jair Bolsonaro, is a staunch defender of Israel, also abstained.
Spain is not part of the Council in the current session.
An investigation commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council found two years ago "rational evidence of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, and in some cases constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity", in the death of about 200 Palestinian protesters on the Gaza border with Israel in 2018 by sniper fire from the Army and Israel.
