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Middle East and North Africa

UN rights council sets up commission to investigate Gaza events

A total of 29 UNHRC members out of 47 voted for the resolution with 17 abstentions

GENEVA, July 23. /ITAR-TASS/. The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has established an independent commission to investigate events in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave, in connection with Israel’s military operation there.

The decision was made at a special session of the Council dedicated to the situation on occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem. A total of 29 UNHRC members out of 47 voted for the resolution with 17 abstentions.

In line with the resolution, the key task of the commission will be to investigate “all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip.”

The commission will have to “establish the facts and circumstances of such violations and of the crimes perpetrated and to identify those responsible, to make recommendations, in particular, on accountability measures, all with a view to avoiding and ending impunity and ensuring that those responsible are held accountable, and on ways and means to protect civilians against any further assaults.”

The commission’s members will have to be appointed by the UNHRC head. It is to present its report at the HRC’s 28th session in the spring of 2015.

Israeli-Palestinian relations grew sour after June 12, 2014, when three Jewish teenagers were abducted in the West Bank. Later the teenagers were found killed. Israel accused militants of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement), which controls the Gaza Strip, of committing the crime.

On July 8, 2014, the Israel Defense Forces announced the start of the operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip against Hamas militants. The IDF made strikes on 50 targets in the Gaza Strip, most of which were launching platforms for rockets. Five Palestinians were killed and some 20 were wounded.

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Middle East and North Africa Palestine Israel

Military operation in Ukraine

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