The United National Human Rights Council endorsed on Wednesday the conclusions of the report that was released earlier this month stating that Israel violated the international law when its army attacked the Mavi Marmara solidarity ship heading to Gaza; nine activists were killed and several others were wounded.The resolution passed by 30 votes; one vote against and 15 members abstained. The only country that voted against the resolution was the United States.
The vote was held after Pakistan brought it up to the table on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
The council said that there is enough evidence that allows prosecuting Israel for its deadly attack against the Freedom Flotilla that was heading to Gaza to deliver humanitarian supplies.
Examining the circumstances of the raid, the panel concluded that a humanitarian crisis existed in Gaza on the day of the incident in Gaza and ‘for this reason alone the blockade is unlawful and cannot be sustained in law.’
The Panel said in its decision that there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and that this crisis also existed on the day the attack took place “for this reason alone the blockade is unlawful and cannot be sustained in law.”
It also stated that the Israeli army used “unnecessary and incredible violence” against the activists.
The investigation committee was assigned by the Human Rights Council; it concluded its work six days ago and clearly stated that Israel violated the international law by deliberately killing activists, and using excessive violence against the passengers of Marmara Turkish ship.
Its report was based on Article number 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the protection of civilians during the time of war.
The United States said that this resolution is unbalanced, adding that some parties could use it to obstruct direct Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.
Most of the European Countries abstained while the Belgian envoy said that this is due to the fact that the report did not refer to any independent international investigation into the attack.
