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The UN Human Rights Council has agreed to launch an open international investigation into violations during the 11-day conflict between Palestinian groups in Israel and Gaza, and over “systematic” abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and within Israel.
With 47 votes in favor, nine against and 14 abstentions, the 47-member forum approved the resolution on Thursday after a special full-day session brought to the United States by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Palestinian delegation. Nations.
The resolution calls for the creation of a permanent Commission of Inquiry — the most powerful tool available to the city — to report on and report on human rights violations in Israel, Gaza and the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. It would be the first COI with a “continuous” mandate.
According to the text, the commission will investigate “all the root causes of repeated tensions, instability and the prolongation of the conflict” including discrimination and repression.
The investigation should focus on the facts and gather evidence for judicial proceedings, and should identify the perpetrators to ensure that they are responsible.
Israel has said it will not cooperate with the drilling.
“Today’s embarrassing decision is another example of the UN Human Rights Council’s marked obsession with Israel,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. “This trafficking mocks international law and encourages terrorists around the world.”
A spokesman for the Palestinian group Hamas, which governs Gaza, welcomed the investigation, calling its actions “legitimate resistance” and calling for “immediate steps” to punish Israel.
The Palestinian Authority welcomed the resolution, saying it was “an international recognition of Israel’s systemic oppression and discrimination against the Palestinian people.”
“This reality of apartheid and impunity cannot be ruled out,” he added.
The United States said it was deeply sorry for the decision.
“The actions taken today will threaten to jeopardize progress,” the U.S. mission said in a statement to the UN in Geneva.
Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey, a New York reporter, said the special session of the human rights council was called “after an unprecedented level of international scrutiny and pressure for action” in the wake of the latest violence.
“Meanwhile [the body] it has no power to punish those found guilty, it marks an unprecedented level of scrutiny for the situation it has found for Israel in the past. ”
Opening the session, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said the attacks in Israel had recently killed more than 200 Palestinians on the recently besieged Gaza Strip. they can be “war crimes”.
“Although they targeted members of armed groups and their military infrastructure, the Israeli attacks resulted in numerous civilian deaths and injuries, as well as heavy destruction and damage to civilian objects,” Bachelet said, noting the scale of the destruction in Gaza. Which has been under a 14-year Israeli blockade.
“If they seem disproportionate, these attacks could be war crimes,” Bachelet said at a 47-member Geneva forum.
Hamas said firing rockets at Israel “indiscriminately” was a “clear violation of international humanitarian law.”
“However, the actions of one party do not absolve the other from the obligations of international law.”
He warned that violence could erupt again unless “basic causes” were addressed.
The 11-day attack on the Gaza Strip, which began on May 10, killed at least 254 Palestinians, including 66 children, and injured more than 1,900 people at the Gaza health ministry.
At least 12 people were killed in the same period in Israel, including three foreign workers and two children, rockets fired by Hamas of Israel and other armed groups in Gaza.
Fighting began in recent weeks as tensions escalated as a result of Israeli-occupied actions in East Jerusalem.
The threat forced expulsion Protests spread in the Sheikh Jarrah district of Palestinian families, and Israel provoked heavy repression and attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque – which was considered the third holiest site in Islam.
Palestinian factions in Gaza, including Hamas, fired rockets at Israel. Then Israel launched a military attack on Gaza.
Youmna Al Sayed, reporting on Al Jazeera in Gaza, said the Palestinians had called on the international community to hold Israel accountable, “in view of the high population density and the targets of civilians in residential buildings” and for destroying the buildings. housing media offices On the Gaza Strip.
“[Palestinians] for the international community to take action and not just condemn Israel’s crimes [committed] about civilians and the Gaza Strip, ”Al Sayed said.
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