The United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for any war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza.
Twenty-eight countries voted in favor of the resolution, 13 abstained and six voted against.
The document also calls for a ban on supplying weapons to Israel due to its conduct in the war in Gaza.
Before the vote, writes the BBC, there were rifts between European countries, with Germany and Bulgaria declaring that they would vote against because the resolution did not explicitly condemn Hamas even though it condemned the firing of rockets into Israel from Gaza and called for release of the hostages.
France abstained, describing the humanitarian situation in Gaza as "catastrophic".
The vote is not binding but comes from the main UN human rights body. Therefore, diplomatic pressure on Israel to change course will certainly increase .
Yesterday Joe Biden also "grilled" Benjamin Netanyahu in a long and tense phone call, inviting him to radically change his tone. The straw that broke the US president's patience was the killing of 7 World Central Kitchen volunteers. Biden made clear to his interlocutor the " need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete and measurable steps to address harm to civilians and the safety of humanitarian workers ." US policy, he warned, “will be determined by Israel's immediate action on these steps.”
(Unioneonline/L)
