GENEVA: The United Nations on Wednesday launched an international inquiry into human rights violations and crimes that may have been committed by Israel during its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The UN Human Rights Council condemned the Israeli assault which it said had involved disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks, including aerial bombing of civilian areas, collective punishment, and the killing of more than 650 Palestinians.

Israel and the United States rejected the probe, calling it one-sided and counterproductive. Israel has observer status at the talks.

At the end of an emergency session, the 47-member forum ado­p­ted a resolution presented by Pales­tin­ians by a vote of 29 states in favour, one against (the United States) with 17 abstentions (including all nine European Union members).

The Geneva forum convened the special one-day session at the request of Pakistan, Egypt and the Palestinians.

Navi Pillay, the UN rights chief, said that Israel may have committed war crimes by killing civilians and shelling houses and hospitals.

But she also condemned the firing of rockets and mortars by Palestinian militants into Israel, saying such acts constituted breaches of international law.

Navi Pillay, citing cases of Israeli air strikes and shelling hitting houses and hospitals in the crowded coastal enclave, said: “These are just a few examples where there seems to be a strong possibility that international humanitarian law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes.

“Each of these incidents must be properly and independently investigated,” she said.

Pillay, a former UN war crimes judge, said that any warning by Israel to Gaza residents before strikes must be “clear, credible and allow sufficient time for people to react”.

Ibrahim Khraishi, ambassador of the Palestinian observer mission to the UN in Geneva, delivered a stirring speech in an attempt to jolt the world body into action.

“We came here to try to achieve together with you at least minimum justice for children who are being dismembered, for women whose bodies are lying in the streets, to find some justice for those who are being exterminated,” Mr Khraishi said.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki said Israeli forces had destroyed whole neighbourhoods and killed entire families.

The UN aid agency, OCHA, has said at least five entire families, with 36 people, had been killed in the past few days.

.US. ambassador Keith Harper, calling for a vote, said that the resolution was “destructive” and a “political and biased instrument”.

“Once again, this council fails to address the situation in Israel and in the Palestinian territories with any semblance of balance. There is no mention of indiscriminate rocket attacks by Hamas into Israel or the tunnels used to cause mayhem,” he said. --Reuters

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2014