The United Nations Human Rights Council condemned on Friday Israel’s use of force against protesters in Gaza.
On the final day of a four-week session, the Geneva forum adopted a resolution on accountability, brought by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The vote was 23 states in favor, eight against, with 15 abstentions and one delegation absent.
The council slammed the “apparent intentional use of unlawful lethal and other excessive force” against civilian protesters in Gaza and called for perpetrators of violations in the enclave to face justice.
It called for cooperating with a preliminary examination opened by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2015 into alleged Israeli human rights violations.
The resolution was based on a report by a UN inquiry which said that Israeli security forces may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in killing 189 Palestinians and wounding more than 6,100 at weekly protests last year.
“The targeting of civilians is a serious matter that should not be condoned,” Palestine’s ambassador Ibrahim Khraisi said, citing the report’s findings. The toll included 35 Palestinian children, two journalists, and medical workers, he noted.
“There have not been any injuries inflicted on any Israelis, be they military or civilians,” he said.
Protests at the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip began in March last year, with Palestinians demanding Israel ease a blockade of Gaza and recognize their right to return to lands their families fled or were forced from when Israel was founded in 1948.
On Friday, Israeli forces killed two people and wounded 55 others taking part in the weekly protests along the fortified border, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Medical officials said two men aged 29 and 18 were killed by Israeli fire at two sites in central Gaza.
The Israeli military said its forces faced around 9,500 demonstrators, some hurling rocks and rolling burning tires. A military spokeswoman said troops had responded with “riot dispersal means” and fired according to standard operating procedures.
Gaza medical officials say that around 200 people have been killed since Palestinians launched the weekly border protests on March 30 last year.
About 60 other Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in other incidents over the same period, including exchanges of fire across the border. One Israeli soldier was shot dead by a Palestinian sniper along the frontier, and another was killed during a botched undercover raid into Gaza.
