Alwaght- The United Nations' top human rights body has voted to send a team of international war crimes investigators to probe the massacre of Gaza protesters by Israeli regime forces.
A resolution calling on the UN Human Rights Council to "urgently dispatch an independent, international commission of inquiry" was backed on Friday by 29 members.
The members - United States and Australia - voted against and 14 abstained.
Investigators must "investigate all alleged violations and abuses ... in the context of the military assaults on large scale civilian protests that began on 30 March 2018", the approved resolution said.
Earlier on Friday, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the UN human rights chief, had backed calls for an international probe.
He heavily criticized Israeli regime’s response to the weeks-long mass protests in the Gaza Strip as "wholly disproportionate".
Israel was an occupying power and under international law, it was obliged to protect the people of Gaza and ensure their welfare, he said. But instead Gaza residents were "caged in a toxic slum from birth to death", added Zeid.
At least 62 Palestinians were killed and thousands were wounded in a single day of protests on Monday, but Zeid pointed out that "on the Israeli side, one soldier was reportedly wounded, slightly, by a stone".
"There is little evidence of any attempt to minimize casualties on Monday," said Zeid.
Since ‘The Great March of Return’ protests began on March 30, Israeli regime forces have killed 106 Palestinians, including 15 children. More than 12,000 have been wounded, at least 3,500 by live ammunition.
Speaking to the session via a video recording, Michael Lynk, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestine, said Israel's use of force may amount to "a war crime".
