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Israeli PM blasts UNHRC for endorsing Gaza war crimes report

Xinhua, July 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday slammed a decision by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to endorse a report accusing Israel and Hamas in war crimes during last summer's war in the Palestinian enclave.

"The UNHRC is not interested in the facts and is not really interested in human rights," Netanyahu charged in a statement released by his office.

He accused the UNHRC for condemning Israel "for no fault of its own, for acting to defend itself from a murderous terrorist organization." He added that Israeli soldiers "act in accordance with international law."

The resolution to back the report was adopted with strong European support, with 41 council members, including Germany, France, and Britain, voting in favor the report, while only the United States voting against. India, Kenya, Paraguay, Ethiopia, and Macedonia abstained.

According to the UNHRC's Independent Commission of Inquiry report, 1,462 Palestinian civilians, a third of them being children, and six Israeli civilians were killed during the 51-day fighting in Gaza from July to August 2014.

The commission said that Israel's indiscriminate fire inflicted "massive and unprecedented harm" to the people of Gaza.

"Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed in their own homes, especially women and children," the report said. Endit