UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL LAUNCHES INQUIRY INTO GAZA CONFLICT
The UN Human Rights Council voted Wednesday to launch an inquiry into potential
violations of human rights by Israel in its conflict with Hamas in the Gaza
Strip — a move Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly labeled a
“travesty.”
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(Alessio Romenzi for TIME)
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed
the UNHRC inquiry as a “travesty” and condemned the organization for failing to
bring Hamas to account for its own conduct.
“The UNHRC is sending a message to Hamas
and terror organizations everywhere that using civilians as human shields is an
effective strategy,” said the prime minister in statement published on his
official Facebook page.
The vote came after the UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights, Navi Pillay suggested that
war crimes might have been committed in the Gaza Strip, accusing Israel of
doing too little to avoid civilian deaths, and condemning Hamas for
“indiscriminate attacks” on Israel.
“There seems to be a strong possibility
that international humanitarian law has been violated, in a manner that could
amount to war crimes,” Pillay told the U.N. Human Rights Council. “Every one of
these incidents must be properly and independently investigated.”
Civilian casualties in Gaza have soared,
according to the UN. As of Thursday, 757 Palestinians had been killed, of which
571 were civilians, including 182 children and 95 women, according to
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. At least 30
Israelis have also been killed during the conflict, mostly members of the armed
forces.
Israeli tanks and aircraft continued their
thrust into the sliver of Palestinian coastal territory on Thursday, aiming to
eliminate Hamas’s rocket systems and destroy the matrix of tunnels that Israel
says the Islamist group uses to wage war.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it
struck 35 targets overnight. But there were more reports of Palestinian
civilians killed; six members of the same family and an 18-month-old infant boy
were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit the Jebaliya refugee camp, according
to theAssociated Press.
While whispers of a possible humanitarian
truce ahead of the upcoming Eid al-Fitr festival wafted through the social
media sphere this week, there have been no concrete signs that such an
armistice will be signed. “It would not be accurate to say that we expect a
ceasefire by the weekend,” said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity to Reuters.
A smattering of international envoys have
been shuttling across the Middle East throughout the week in attempt to wrangle
up some sort of agreement that remained elusive as of Thursday morning.
In Qatar, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal
signaled that the organization would consider a humanitarian ceasefire with
Israel, but reiterated that his group would not strike a deal with the
Netanyahu Administration until Israel agreed to end its seven-year blockade of
Gaza.
“We will not accept any proposal that does
not lift the blockade,” saidthe Hamas chief in a televised address
Wednesday. “We do not desire war and we do not want it to continue but we will
not be broken by it.”
Analysts say Israel is facing mounting
global pressure as civilian losses grow in Gaza, but add that Hamas is facing
plenty of pressures of its own.
“Hamas is on the receiving end and they can only go a
certain distance in terms of absorbing losses and holding a united front within
Gaza,” Sultan Barakat, the director of research at the Brookings Doha Center,
tells TIME. “Soon they will run out of supplies. There will be an increased
number of people displaced within Gaza and people will turn their anger towards
them.”
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