UN rights council to mull international probe into Israel's bombardment of Gaza

The UN Human Rights Council will consider launching a broad, international investigation into abuses in the latest violence against Gaza and also into "systematic" abuses, according to a proposal tabled on Tuesday.
 

The draft resolution will be discussed during a special session of the council on Thursday, requested amid 11 days of deadly violence against the besieged Gaza this month.
 

The text, presented by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, calls for the UN top rights body to "urgently establish an ongoing independent, international commission of inquiry... in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and in the occupied territories of Palestine."

The investigators, the text said, should probe "all alleged violations and abuses" of international law linked to the tensions that sparked the latest violence.

Before a truce took hold last Friday, Israeli air strikes and artillery fire on Gaza killed 253 Palestinians, including 66 children, and wounded more than 1,900 people in 11 days of conflict from May 10, the health ministry in Gaza says.