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U.N. Official Cites ‘Strong Possibility’ of War Crimes in Gaza Conflict U.N. Rights Panel Votes for Inquiry in Gaza Conflict
(about 7 hours later)
GENEVA — The United Nations’ top human rights official, Navi Pillay, said Wednesday that there was a “strong possibility” that Israel and Hamas have committed war crimes with indiscriminate attacks on civilians during more than two weeks of fighting with militants in Gaza. GENEVA — The United Nations Human Rights Council voted to establish an inquiry into human rights violations in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories at a special session on Wednesday in which the top human rights official, Navi Pillay, said Israel and Hamas had likely committed war crimes with indiscriminate attacks on civilians.
Opening a special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Ms. Pillay called for an investigation and accountability to end the cycle of violence. Twenty-nine of the council’s 47 members voted for a resolution calling for the creation of a commission of inquiry to look at “all violations” of international law, with only the United States voting against and with 17 states abstaining, 10 of them European.
Ms. Pillay cited Israeli airstrikes on civilian homes in Gaza and the shelling of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital two days ago, which killed four people, as examples of actions that suggest “a strong possibility that international humanitarian law has been violated in a manner that could amount to war crimes.” The United States was working intensively to secure an immediate cessation of hostilities “but this resolution will not help us achieve that goal,” Keith M. Harper, the American ambassador to the council, told members before the vote.
She also condemned Hamas and other militant groups for attacks on Israeli civilians. And she said it was unacceptable to place military assets in densely populated areas or to launch attacks from then. “The principles of distinction and precaution are clearly not being observed by such indiscriminate attacks on civilians by Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups,” she said. The inquiry created by the council was a “biased and political instrument” he said, adding: “Once again, this council has failed to address the situation in Israel and in the Palestinian territories with any semblance of balance.”
“The actions of one party do not absolve the other party of the need to respect its obligations under international law,” said Ms. Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights. Ms. Pillay had opened the session citing Israeli airstrikes on civilian homes and an attack on the Al Aqsa hospital two days earlier as examples of action where there seemed to be a “strong possibility” that international law had been breached “in a manner that could amount to war crimes.”
Nearly 650 Palestinians have been killed so far in the conflict, about three-quarters of them civilians. Those figures, she said, belied Israel’s claim that it had taken all necessary precautions to protect civilians. These incidents and the high proportion of civilian casualties, who made up almost three-quarters of the nearly 700 Palestinians killed since the fighting started on July 8, “belies the claim that all necessary precautions are being taken to protect civilian lives,” she said.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Eviatar Manor, criticized what he said was the council’s “ritual of naming and shaming Israel.” Ms. Pillay also condemned indiscriminate attacks on civilians by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Gaza who had fired rockets and mortar rounds into Israel, calling the attacks a clear breach of international law.
“There can be no moral symmetry between a terrorist aggressor and a democracy defending itself,” he said. “The actions of one party do not absolve the other party of the need to respect its obligations under international law,” said Ms. Pillay.
In a comment directed at Ms. Pillay, he added, “In the protection of the human rights of Israelis, this council and you, madam, have failed dismally.” Neither side had acted seriously to investigate or hold anyone to account for human rights violations, creating a climate of impunity that invited further abuses, she said.
Riad Maliki, the foreign minister for the Palestinian Authority, said that Israel had enjoyed an impunity that had “given rise to a legal void.” If that continues, he said, “the credibility of the U.N., the international community and the human rights system will be jeopardized.” “We have a humanitarian disaster,” Riad Maliki, the foreign minister for the Palestinian Authority, told the council. He contended that Israel had acted with impunity and that without an accounting, “the credibility of the U.N., the international community and the human rights system will be jeopardized.”
The 47-member council was due to vote later on a Palestinian resolution calling on for an international commission of inquiry appointed by the council’s president to investigate all human rights violations in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel’s United Nations ambassador in Geneva, Eviatar Manor, criticized what he called the council’s “ritual of naming and shaming Israel” and countered that “there can be no moral symmetry between a terrorist aggressor and a democracy defending itself.”
In a comment directed at Ms. Pillay, he added that “in the protection of the human rights of Israelis, this council and you, madam, have failed dismally.”