Posted on 07/23/2014 2:47:44 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Navi Pillay said Tel Aviv's two-week onslaught on Gaza - which has cost more than 650 Palestinians lives - would be thoroughly investigated.
Ms Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the attacks have destroyed houses and hospitals and killed civilians.
"These are just a few examples where there seems to be a strong possibility that international humanitarian law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes.
"Every one of these incidents must be properly and independently investigated."
According to Gaza officials, 475 houses have been destroyed and 2,644 damaged, while 46 schools, 56 mosques and seven hospitals have been struck.
Ms Pillay, who spoke at an emergency debate on the crisis at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, also criticised Hamas for indiscriminate rocket and mortar attacks.
The one-day session was convened at the request of the Palestinians and Egypt, but significantly, boycotted by Israel, which accuses the council of bias.
The move came as the conflict raging on, with 49 Palestinians killed in the space of 24 hours.
Many of the deaths were recorded in Khan Younis, the south Gaza town which has borne the brunt of Israel's land offensive.
Meanwhile Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said he was ready to accept a humanitarian truce in Gaza.
However, he said where the Islamist group would not agree to a full ceasefire until the terms had been negotiated.
He said: "Everyone wanted us to accept a ceasefire and then negotiate for our rights, we reject this and we reject it again today."
He added that Hamas "will not close the door" to a humanitarian truce if Israel ended its bombardment of Gaza.
US Secretary of State John Kerry also held talks in Tel Aviv today about a strategy to end the conflict sparked by the murder of three Israeli youths and one Palestinian.
Ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, he said: "We have certainly made some steps forward.
"There is still work to be done.
'We are doing this for one simple reason.
"The people in the Palestinian territories, the people in Israel, are all living under the threat or reality of immediate violence. And this need to end for everybody."
Elsewhere today, several major American and European airlines suspended flights to Israel after a militant rocket struck a house near the airport.
The companies which acted included Britain's Easyjet, German firm Lufthansa, Dutch airline KLM and Air France, together with US Airways, United and Delta from America.
Israel, which has lost 29 troops and three civilians in the fighting, claims its offensive is designed to stop Hamas tunnelling across the border in search of hostages.
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said: "Israel is acting according to international law.
"It is acting against terrorism.
"It is regrettable civilians are killed, but when we call on them to vacate and Hamas calls on them to stay, then that is what happens."
No one gives a damn when rockets are raining down on Israelis - nope, just crickets. But the minute Israel defends itself...
"BAD ISRAEL, BAD, BAD ISRAEL!"
INVESTIGATE THE U.N.
for allowing Hamas terrorists to stockpile rockets , etc
in their properties .
Whoever is doing this stuff at the U.N. in N.Y. should be made to worry about going home at night .
The UN is a dangerous anachronism.
No Sh!t.
Give them half a trillion dollars to move to some tropical worker’s utopia like Zimbabwe.
Purge the third-world bureaucrats!
Good grief, Israel is threatened with an investagation for defending itself!
Agreed! Castro has been perpetuating an ongoing crime against humanity for the past 55 years. Does the UN plan on investigating Cuba? /sarcasm
You actually make a good point, seems they have a better 2A than we do. Where's Michael Bloomberg to take care of that?
Kind of threw that in as an after-thought, did she?
With that said, I guess there will be no investigation of Hamas.
Kind of like going after the police for the way they made a particular arrest... and then as an afterthought saying "also, the perp shouldn't have committed the crime."
Blah...blah...blah.
Pillay, you ignorant slut...
The rocket and mortar attacks are the MATERIAL CAUSE, the FORMAL CAUSE, the EFFICIENT CAUSE and the FINAL CAUSE of everything that happens in this conflict.
Why were those teens hitch hiking in such a dangerous area? Does anyone know for sure who killed them?
I'm in the minority here, I strongly suspect. I consider myself to be passionately pro-life, and am saddened equally by all unnecessary and wanton loss of life. The death of a Palestinian or Sunni or Syrian or Israeli child....they're all equally horrific. Sometimes I get the sense (this is not directed to you, I'm venting) that some posters somehow feel an Israeli life is more precious than the life on an innocent Palestinian (or any other) child.
AMEN and AMEN!!!!!
So will everyone in Gaza who did not get out when Hamas attempted to murder Israelis how many times be tried as accomplices?
Come to think of it, if we do not publicly renounce abortion, we are accomplices in God’s eyes, too.
Ezekial 33: 1-20
The Watchman’s Duty
33 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them, ‘If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman, 3 and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life.
6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.’
That is because the American left despise Israel and pray everyday for its destruction..when Boko Haram kills THOUSANDS of women and children by BURNING THEM ALIVE..CRICKETS from the media..when ISIS in Iraq murders THOUSANDS of people for not converting to Islam, CRICKETS From the media..but the second Israel says NO MORE and defends themselves against terrorist SCUM you hear outrage from the media
From all I've read this seems to be the prelude/timetable to war.
Netanyahu was (rightfully) angry with the unity pact with Hamas and Abbas...and the reaction to it from the Western governments.
Netanyahu immediately blamed Hamas for the kidnappings, but to this point has not presented the proof he says Israel has.
I tend to agree with the assessment that Netanyahu saw an opportunity to do damage to Hamas "using" their role in the kidnapping of the three teenagers as "cover". All was going his way until the search went a little over the top with the bulldozing of houses, roundups and arrests and the shooting deaths of six Palestinian teenagers.
The two years of "calm" are shattered with Hamas shooting missiles.
Initially Netanyahu called for restraint against Hamas and was applauded for his calm leadership by Western governments.
Then Lieberman bolted the coalition because Netanyahu wasn't taking on Hamas. This move left Likud with a one seat majority and set the stage for a possible call for early elections.
It was 24 hours after this move putting Netanyahu's coalition and his position at real political risk that Netanyahu ordered the IDF to "take the gloves off" and protect the Israeli people.
The Hero of Benghazi will enjoy this. It’s a good thing Israel can ignore the UN and do what they have to do.
Look for The Hero of Benghazi to put more sections on Israel the next two years.
Will be interesting to see how US Jews vote in 2016 and perhaps even this year.
U.N. to investigate Israel for war crimes. OMG.
The media is PATHETIC beyond mere pathetic.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.