GENEVA: The UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday condemned Israel’s renewed offensive in Gaza and demanded the country uphold its responsibility to “prevent genocide” in the Palestinian territory.
The United Nations’ top rights body overwhelmingly adopted a resolution putting forth a list of demands to Israel, including calling on it to “lift its illegal blockade” on Gaza.
The text, adopted with 27 of the council’s 47 members voting in favour, four against and 16 abstaining, deplored “the violation by Israel of the ceasefire agreement”.
The vote came after Israel on March 18 resumed intense bombing of Gaza before launching a new ground offensive, ending a nearly two-month ceasefire.
The resolution, put forward by most members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, demanded “unimpeded humanitarian assistance and the urgent restoration of basic necessities” to Gaza.
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It slammed “the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”, and called on all countries “to take immediate action to prevent the continued forcible transfer of Palestinians within or from the Gaza Strip”.
The text also voiced “grave concern at statements by Israeli officials amounting to incitement to genocide”, and demanded Israel “uphold its legal responsibility to prevent genocide”.
Israel is boycotting the council, which it has accused of bias.
But it has flatly rejected accusations of “genocide” in its war in Gaza, which erupted after Palestinian group Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023 attacks inside Israel.
Wednesday’s resolution called on countries to stop supplying military equipment to Israel.
It also ordered the Commission of Inquiry – a high-level team probing abuses in the conflict – to broaden its investigation to look at “the direct and the indirect transfer or sale of arms, munitions, parts, components and dual-use items to Israel”.
And the text called on the UN General Assembly to consider setting up a new investigative team to prepare prosecutions for major international crimes in the conflict.
Several countries took the floor to lament a lack of “balance” in the text, which did not mention Hamas. They included the Czech Republic, which voted against the resolution along with Germany, Ethiopia and North Macedonia.
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