The United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday adopted a resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for what it said were possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.
Israel dismissed it as a “distorted text.”
The resolution — which passed with 28 of the council’s 47 member states voting in favor, six opposed and 13 abstaining — marked the first time the UN’s top rights body has taken a position on the bloodiest-ever war in the Palestinian territory.
Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, slammed the resolution as “a stain for the Human Rights Council and for the UN as a whole.”
She accused the Council of having “long abandoned the Israeli people and long defended Hamas.”
The strongly worded text called on countries to “cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel… to prevent further violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights.”
It stressed that the International Court of Justice ruled in January “that there is a plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza. Lawyers for Israel denied the allegations of deliberately causing humanitarian suffering in the enclave, highlighting Israeli efforts to protect civilians, but noting the difficulty of preventing such deaths while Hamas terrorists embed themselves within civilian areas.
Friday’s resolution, which was brought forward by Pakistan on behalf of all Organisation of Islamic Cooperation member states except Albania, also called for “an immediate ceasefire” and “for immediate emergency humanitarian access and assistance.”
