Accessibility links

Breaking News

UN Calls for Prosecuting Gaza War Crimes


File - A Palestinian man reacts as rescue workers search for victims under the rubble of a house, which witnesses said was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 2014.
File - A Palestinian man reacts as rescue workers search for victims under the rubble of a house, which witnesses said was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 2014.

The United Nations human rights body called on Israel and the Palestinians to prosecute alleged war crimes committed in the 2014 Gaza war and to cooperate with the International Criminal Court's preliminary investigation.

The U.N. Human Rights Council debated the issue days before the first anniversary of Israel launching "Operation Protective Edge" in response to rockets fired by militants in the Hamas-ruled enclave into Israel.

The 47-member state Geneva forum adopted a resolution, presented by the Palestinian delegation backed by Muslim states, by a vote of 41 in favor with five abstentions. The United States was the sole dissenter.

All European Union member states, including Britain, France and Germany, voted in favor of prosecuting war crimes.

  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG