The UN Human Rights Council voted in the session on Friday in favour of the decision to investigate the latest events in the Gaza Strip that resulted in dozens of casualties and deaths.
The UN session comes after Palestinian demonstrations against the US decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Out of 47 members, 29 members council voted in favour of the decision, while two opposed and 14 abstained. The US and Australia were the two countries that rejected the decision.
The council also condemned “the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by the Israeli occupied forces against Palestinian civilians,” according to the resolution.
The Independent, International Commission of Inquiry to Investigate Human Rights Violations (OHCHR) mandated by the council will be asked to produce a final report next March.
In a speech to the council about the violence that killed more than 100 people in Gaza within six weeks, High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein warned that “the killing result of illegal use of force by an occupying force may also constitute deliberate killings, which is a serious violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”
“Israel categorically rejects the UN Human Rights Council’s resolution, which once again demonstrated that it is a body with an anti-Israel majority, hypocrisy, and absurdity were held sway,” said Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs slamming the decision in a statement.
Israel accused the council of systematically ignoring real human rights violations around the world and instead “adopting more resolutions against Israel than against all the rest of the countries in the world combined.”
Israel pointed out that the vast majority of the 60 people killed in Monday’s protest “were Hamas members, as even the leaders of the terror group have acknowledged in their own voices.”
As Israel celebrated the official opening of the new US embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, more than 41 Palestinians were killed, and 2,000 others injured, including women, children, and journalists, by Israeli forces in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. They were protesting Trump’s move of the US embassy to Jerusalem and marking the 70th anniversary of Nakba Day.
