Top UN rights body votes for inquiry on Gaza massacre
KUWAIT URGED WORLD BODY TO DEPLOY INTERNATIONAL FORCE TO PROTECT CIVILIANS
The UN Human Rights Council voted yesterday to set up a commission of inquiry to look into the Gaza massacre carried out by Israeli occupation troops on Tuesday. Meeting in a special session in Geneva, the council voted 29-2 with 14 abstentions to back a resolution that also condemned “the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by the Israeli occupying forces against Palestinian civilians.” Earlier, Kuwait urged the Security Council to condemn the Israeli occupation regime’s use of force against Palestinian civilians “in the strongest terms”, and to deploy an international force to protect civilians.
A draft resolution circulated by Kuwait, which is the Arab representative on the council, also demanded that Israel “immediately cease its military reprisals, collective punishment and unlawful use of force against civilians, including in the Gaza Strip.”
The Israeli regime condemned the resolution, and the United States decried it as an example of a biased focus on Israel by the council.
The “independent, international commission of inquiry” mandated by the council will be asked to produce a final report next March.
During yesterday’s session, the UN’s top human rights official backed calls for an international inquiry and questioned Israel’s assertion that its occupation forces tried to “minimise” casualties. “There is little evidence of any attempt to minimise casualties on Monday,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussain.
Some demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails, used slingshots, flew burning kites into Israel, and attempted to use wire-cutters on border fences, but “these actions alone do not appear to constitute the imminent threat to life or deadly injury which could justify the use of lethal force,” added Al Hussain, a Jordanian prince.
Meanwhile, Turkey has called on Muslim nations to stand united for Palestine and to work to stop countries joining the United States in relocating their Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem. Turkey, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the organisation, called an extraordinary summit of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the “illegal” US decision encouraged Israel to “massacre innocent Palestinians in cold blood.”