UN rights chief warns of possible Gaza war crimes

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GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.’s top human rights official
demanded Wednesday that all sides in the two-week war in the Gaza Strip
refrain from indiscriminate attacks on civilians, warning that
violations may amount to war crimes.
The warning by U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay came at a special meeting of
the U.N.’s top human rights body, which voted 29-1 to authorize an
international commission of inquiry to investigate all alleged abuses
since mid-June in the Gaza Strip.
Only the United States voted
against the resolution championed by Arab nations. Another 17 of the
Human Rights Council’s 47 member-states abstained.
Israel said
that the council’s decision to investigate Israel’s role in the conflict
sent a message to extremist groups around the world that using human
shields — which it accuses Hamas of doing — was an "effective strategy."
"The
Human Rights Council must start to investigate Hamas’ decision to turn
hospitals into command bases and schools into weapons warehouses and to
place rocket batteries near playgrounds, private homes and mosques,"
said a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office.
The
U.N. secretary-general said he was "alarmed" to hear that rockets were
placed in a U.N.-run school in Gaza and that "subsequently these have
gone missing."
A statement by the spokesman for Ban Ki-moon
expressed the U.N. chief’s "outrage" at the incident and demanded that
militant groups stop such actions and should be held accountable for
endangering civilians.
No details on the number or kind of rockets were given. The location of the school was not given.
Of
the more than 600 Palestinian deaths in the Gaza Strip reviewed by the
United Nations, three-quarters were civilians, Pillay said. At least 147
were children and 74 women, she said.
According to the latest
count more than 680 Palestinians and 31 Israelis — two of them civilians
— have been killed during the conflict.
Pillay cited an Israeli
drone missile strike in Gaza City that killed three children and wounded
two others while they were playing on the roof of their home. She also
made reference to an Israeli strike and naval shelling that struck seven
children playing on Gaza beach, killing four from the same family.
"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," Pillay told the rights council’s special
session.
Israel launched its operation in Gaza on July 8 in
response to heavy rocket fire out of Hamas-controlled Gaza. The fighting
escalated last week with an Israeli ground offensive.
Pillay also warned that Hamas and others were violating international law.
"Israeli
children, and their parents and other civilians, also have a right to
live without the constant fear that a rocket fired from Gaza may land on
their houses or their schools, killing or injuring them," Pillay said.
"The
principles of distinction and precaution are clearly not being observed
during such indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas by Hamas and other
armed Palestinian groups," she added.
Pillay said not abiding by those principles could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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