New Delhi: The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on Friday urging Israel to be held accountable for potential war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza strip, news agency Reuters reported. However, Israel rejected the resolution, dismissing it as a "distorted text."
With 28 countries voting in favour, 13 abstaining, and six opposing the resolution, including notable nations like the United States and Germany, the adoption of the resolution received applause and cheers from several representatives at the Council.
The resolution stressed "the need to ensure accountability for all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in order to end impunity".
It expressed "grave concern at reports of serious human rights violations and grave breaches of international humanitarian law, including of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory".
Israel's permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Meirav Eilon Shahar accused the UNHR Council of having "long abandoned the Israeli people and long defended Hamas".
"According to the resolution before you today, Israel has no right to protect its people, while Hamas has every right to murder and torture innocent Israelis," Reuters quoted her as saying.
Meanwhile, Palestinian envoy Ibrahim Khraishi welcomed the vote. However, he complained that it did not get the support of some European states.
"There have been calls for accountability across the world, but that position changes when we're talking about Israel," Khraishi told the Council.
The United States vowed to vote against the resolution as it did not contain a specific condemnation of Hamas attack or "any reference to the terrorist nature of those actions". However, it did say that Israel had not done enough to mitigate harm to the Gaza civilians.
"The United States has repeatedly urged Israel to de-conflict military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations, in order to avoid civilian casualties and to ensure humanitarian actors can carry out their essential mission in safety," Michèle Taylor, US permanent representative to the Council, said.