UN rights body demands halt to arms sales to Israel, cites ‘possible war crimes’
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The war in Gaza began after Hamas’ Oct 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,170 people in Israel, mostly civilians.
PHOTO: AFP
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GENEVA – The UN Human Rights Council on April 5 adopted a resolution demanding a halt in all arms sales to Israel, highlighting warnings of “genocide” in its war in Gaza that has left more than 33,000 people dead.
Israel dismissed it as a “distorted text”.
Twenty-eight of the council’s 47 member states voted in favour, 13 abstained and six voted against the resolution, including the US and Germany.
This is the first time that the UN’s top rights body has taken a position on the bloodiest-ever war to beset the besieged Palestinian territory.
The resolution stressed “the need to ensure accountability for all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in order to end impunity”.
It also expressed “grave concern at reports of serious human rights violations and grave breaches of international humanitarian law, including of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territory”.
The strongly worded text called on countries to “cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel”.
It stressed that the International Court of Justice ruled in January
The resolution, which was brought forward by Pakistan on behalf of all Organisation of Islamic Cooperation member states, except Albania, also called for “an immediate ceasefire” and “for immediate emergency humanitarian access and assistance”.
Palestinian Ambassador Ibrahim Mohammad Khraishi told the council before the vote: “We need you all to wake up and stop this genocide, a genocide televised around the world.”
‘Yes’ a vote for Hamas
Ms Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, accused the council of having “long abandoned the Israeli people and long defended Hamas”.
“According to the resolution before you today, Israel has no right to protect its people, while Hamas has every right to murder and torture innocent Israelis,” she said ahead of the vote.
“A vote (of) ‘yes’ is a vote for Hamas.”
The US had pledged to vote against the resolution because it did not contain a specific condemnation of Hamas for the Oct 7 attacks,
But it said its ally Israel had not done enough to mitigate harm to civilians.
The US’ permanent representative to the council, Ms Michele Taylor, said: “The US has repeatedly urged Israel to deconflict military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations, in order to avoid civilian casualties and to ensure humanitarian actors can carry out their essential mission in safety.
“That has not happened and, in just six months, more humanitarians have been killed in this conflict than in any war of the modern era.”
The UN Security Council in New York last week finally passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire
But the ceasefire demand has had no impact on the ground.
The war in Gaza began after Hamas’ Oct 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,170 people in Israel, mostly civilians.
Palestinian militants also took more than 250 hostages on Oct 7, and 130 remain in Gaza, including 34 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 33,037 people, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Release all hostages
While Hamas was not mentioned by name, the rights council resolution also condemned the firing of rockets at Israeli civilian areas and demanded “the immediate release of all remaining hostages”.
It repeatedly named Israel, demanding that the country end its occupation of all Palestinian territories and “immediately lift its blockade on the Gaza Strip and all other forms of collective punishment”.
The text, which was revised late on April 4 removing several references to genocide, continued to express “grave concern at statements by Israeli officials amounting to incitement to genocide”.
It urged countries to “prevent the continued forcible transfer of Palestinians within and from Gaza”.
It warned in particular “against any large-scale military operations in the city of Rafah”, in the south of the densely populated Gaza Strip, where well over one million civilians are sheltering, warning of “devastating humanitarian consequences”.
The resolution also condemned “the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in Gaza”, where the UN has warned that famine is looming.
It slammed “the unlawful denial of humanitarian access, wilful impediment to relief supplies and deprivation of objects indispensable to the survival of civilians, including food, water, electricity, fuel and telecommunications, by Israel”.
It called on the Commission of Inquiry on the rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories – the highest-level UN investigation launched prior to Oct 7 – to probe all “direct and indirect transfer or sale of arms, munitions, parts, components and dual-use items to Israel, the occupying power”.
The team, it said, should identify the weapons used since Oct 7 and “analyse the legal consequences of these transfers”. AFP, REUTERS
