Israel slams UN decision to send inquiry mission to Gaza

A spokesperson for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the decision on Wednesday by the UN Human Rights Council to form an international inquiry mission to investigate all violations committed during the latest Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip as “ludicrous”, Anadolu news agency reported.

The news agency quoted a statement by Ofir Gendelman, who said: “Instead of opening an investigation into the Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, which commits double war crimes by firing rockets at Israeli civilians and hiding behind Palestinian civilians, the Human Rights Council calls to investigate Israel’s actions, despite our unprecedented efforts at avoiding harm to civilians by dropping leaflets, making phone calls and sending text messages to warn civilians before striking.”

Gendelman added, “The Human Rights Council should open an investigation into Hamas’s decision to convert hospitals into military bases and schools into arms stores, as well as setting up rocket launchers near playgrounds, homes and mosques.”

He continued: “While the Human Rights Council insists on refusing to condemn Hamas’s systematic use of human shields and insists upon holding Israel responsible for casualties which occur as a result of the criminal human shields policy pursued by Hamas, it sends a clear message to Hamas and terrorist organisations everywhere that using civilians as human shields is a viable strategy … this decision is ludicrous.”

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry issued an earlier statement saying that the Human Rights Council “adopted a resolution by a majority vote condemning the Israeli aggression on the Palestinian people and agreeing to send an international commission to investigate the crimes committed by Israel following the aggression on the occupied Palestinian territories.”

The resolution calls to send an independent international inquiry mission to investigate all violations against international law committed during the Israeli attack on Gaza, to prepare a list of abuses and crimes, and to identify those responsible to stand trial.