Gaza Residents 'caged In A Toxic Slum': UN Human Rights Chief Zeid

UNITED NATIONS, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th May, 2018 ) :Israel has been keeping 1.9 million Palestinians "caged in a toxic slum from birth to death" in the Gaza Strip, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein told a special session of the Human Rights Council on Friday.

His remarks come as the Geneva-based Council began considering a draft resolution on sending an international war crimes probe to Gaza to investigate deadly shootings of protesters by Israeli forces, according to media reports.

The special session of the 47-member Council was convened after the bloodiest day for Palestinians in years last Monday, when 60 were killed by Israeli gunfire during demonstrations that Israel said included attempts to breach its frontier fence.

Nobody has been made safer by the horrific events of the past week, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Rad al-Hussein told the Council. He said Israeli forces had killed 106 Palestinians, including 15 children, since March 30.

More than 12,000 were injured, at least 3,500 by live ammunition. Israel was an occupying power under international law, obliged to protect the people of Gaza and ensure their welfare, he said. But they are, in essence, caged in a toxic slum from birth to death; deprived of dignity; dehumanised by the Israeli authorities to such a point it appears officials do not even consider that these men and women have a right, as well as every reason, to protest.

Israel claims the deaths took place in protests organized by Hamas, which intentionally provoked the violence, an accusation Hamas denies. The United States has stood by Israel during the past weeks violence, which coincided with the opening of a new U.S.

embassy in Jerusalem. U.S. charge daffaires Theodore Allegra said the Council was ignoring the real culprit of the violence: Hamas.But Zeid told the Council that "the stark contrast in casualties on both sides is ...

suggestive of a wholly disproportionate response." Many of the Palestinians injured and killed "were completely unarmed, (and) were shot in the back, in the chest, in the head and limbs with live ammunition," he said.

"Although some of the demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails, used slingshots to throw stones, flew burning kites into Israel and attempted to use wire-cutters against the two fences between Gaza and Israel, these actions alone do not appear to constitute the imminent threat to life or deadly injury which could justify the use of lethal force." Zeid called "an investigation that is international, independent and impartial, in the hope the truth regarding these matters will lead to justice." APP/ift