GENEVA: Israel has been sharply criticised at a UN human rights body for its killings of protesters in Gaza and treatment of the Palestinians, but Washington came to its defence.
Yesterday's special session of the Human Rights Council was convened after the bloodiest day for Palestinians in years on Monday, when 60 protesters were killed by Israeli gunfire during demonstrations that the Jewish state said included attempts to breach its frontier fence.
“Nobody has been made safer by the horrific events of the past week,” UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein told the council.
He said Israeli forces had killed 106 Palestinians, including 15 children, since March 30. More than 12000 were injured, at least 3500 by live ammunition. Israel was an occupying power under international law obliged to protect the people of Gaza and ensure their welfare, he said.
“But they are, in essence, caged in a toxic slum from birth to death; deprived of dignity; dehumanised by the Israeli authorities to such a point it appears officials do not even consider that these men and women have a right, as well as every reason, to protest.”
Israel says the deaths took place in protests organised by Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, which intentionally provoked the violence, an accusation Hamas denies.
Israel and the US complained that the council, made up of 47 states chosen by the General Assembly, had a permanent anti-Israel bias because of the disproportionate number of countries hostile to Israel with UN seats.
Israel's ambassador Aviva Raz Shechter said the council had relapsed to its worst form of anti-Israel obsession. The call for an inquiry was “politically motivated and won't improve the situation on the ground by even one iota”, she added.
“The loss of life could have been avoided had Hamas refrained from sending terrorists to attack Israel under the cover of the riots, while exploiting its own civilian population as human shields,” she said. “It is Israel, certainly not Hamas, which makes a real effort to minimise casualties among Palestinian civilians.”
The US has stood by Israel during the past week's violence, which coincided with the opening of a new US embassy in Jerusalem. US chargé d’affaires Theodore Allegra said the council was ignoring the real culprit of the violence, Hamas.
Two million people live in Gaza, most of them stateless descendants of refugees who fled or were driven from homes when Israel was founded in 1948.
In Gaza, residents said Israel deserved the international criticism.