The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Wednesday, agreed to launch an international inquiry into human rights violations that may have been committed during Israel’s most recent military offensive in Gaza.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, earlier warned that Israel may have committed war crimes in its offensive against Hamas, reports the Guardian.
Speaking at an emergency debate at the UNHRC, Nabi Pillay said,
"There seems to be a strong possibility that international law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes."
Notably, India, who had previously abstained on voting for an international inquiry into war crimes committed in Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict, voted in favour of an inquiry into Israel’s latest offensive.
Israel’s envoy to the UNHRC, disputed Pillay’s comments and accused Hamas of committing war crimes and stated that Israel was defending its citizens.
“There can be no moral symmetry between a terrorist aggressor and a democracy defending itself,” said Eviatar Manor.
The US Secretary State John Kerry said Wednesday that ‘steps forward’ had been taken in his visit to Israel and Palestine after talking with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
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