Palestinian worshippers pray in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on the first Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan

"Many of those injured and killed Monday “were completely unarmed, [and] were shot in the back" - U.N. rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein

U.N. votes to send war crimes probe to Gaza

GENEVA/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: The U.N. Human Rights Council voted Friday to send a team of international war crimes investigators to probe the deadly shootings of Gaza protesters by Israeli forces.

The U.N.’s top human rights body voted through a resolution calling on the council to “urgently dispatch an independent, international commission of inquiry” – the United Nations rights council’s highest-level of investigation.

Only two of the council’s 47 members, the United States and Australia, voted against the resolution, while 29 voted in favor and 14 abstained, including Britain, Switzerland and Germany.

The text said the team should “investigate all alleged violations and abuses ... in the context of the military assaults on large-scale civilian protests that began on 30 March 2018 ... including those that may amount to war crimes.”

The special U.N. session comes after six weeks of mass protests and clashes along the Gaza border with Palestinian refugees demanding the right to return to their former homes inside what is now Israel.

The violence has claimed more than 100 Gazan lives, with 60 Palestinians killed and thousands injured in a single day of protests that coincided with Monday’s move of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem.

Opening the special session earlier Friday, U.N. rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein slammed the “wholly disproportionate” use of force by Israeli troops and backed the call for an international probe.

He insisted that many of those injured and killed Monday “were completely unarmed, [and] were shot in the back, in the chest, in the head and limbs with live ammunition,” he said, adding there was “little evidence of any [Israeli] attempt to minimize casualties.”

Some demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails, used slingshots, flew burning kites into Israel and attempted to use wire cutters on border fences, but “these actions alone do not appear to constitute the imminent threat to life or deadly injury which could justify the use of lethal force,” he added.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva Aviva Raz Shechter slammed what she called a “shameful” and “biased” resolution.

“Hamas is the aggressor,” she said, adding that Friday’s resolution “is void of any sense and deserves nothing less than being torn apart.”

Separately, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would raise the violence in Gaza at the U.N. General Assembly in his opening speech at an extraordinary summit of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation that Ankara called for.

Earlier, he addressed thousands of supporters waving Turkish and Palestinian flags in Istanbul’s Yenikapi neighborhood, calling for Muslim solidarity and accusing the United Nations of failing to stand up to Washington.

The United Nations Security Council will begin talks Monday on a Kuwait-drafted resolution that condemns Israeli force against Palestinian civilians and calls for an “international protection mission” to be deployed to occupied Palestine.In Gaza Friday, hundreds of Palestinians gathered along the border with Israel for the eighth weekly protest. Most gathered in tent camps at a safe distance from the border. Hamas leaders visited the camps.

Dozens got close to the fence, burning tires. Israeli troops responded with tear gas and occasional gunfire.

Hamas said rallies will continue until the blockade – imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas took over Gaza in 2007 – is lifted.

Meanwhile, Egypt took the rare decision to open the Rafah border crossing with Gaza for the entire holy month of Ramadan, in what would be the longest uninterrupted period of time since 2013.

The decision had been made “to alleviate the suffering” of residents in the Palestinian territory, President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said on Facebook late Thursday.

Gazans lined up from dawn to travel across the border into Egypt, the strip’s only gateway to the outside world not controlled by Israel.

Hamas has denied Cairo pressure but the opening was widely seen in Gaza and Israel as the likely result of a deal to provide Gazans with a lifeline in return for the de-escalation of the protest on the Gaza-Israel border.

“This is political. I can bet my life on it,” one 34-year-old Gazan said as he waited among busloads of passengers at Rafah.

He pointed to the May 13 visit by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to Egypt, which has sought to act as a broker between Israel, Hamas and its Palestinian rivals.

“We are not against it. On the contrary, we hope it will also include lifting the Israeli blockade. It would mean the marches were effective,” he said, refusing to give his surname because he feared Egypt would refuse him entry.

In occupied Jerusalem, meanwhile, 120,000 Palestinians prayed at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the first weekly prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Friday prayers passed peacefully at the site, while outside the compound heavily armed police officers were deployed in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City.

There were no restrictions on women crossing into Jerusalem, but men under 40 were prevented from crossing by Israel, which normally cites security concerns.