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Israel-Gaza war
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UN rights council demands halt of arms sales to Israel amid ‘plausible risk of genocide’ in Gaza

  • The resolution called for ‘an immediate ceasefire’ and ‘for immediate emergency humanitarian access and assistance’
  • It is the first time that the UN’s top rights body has taken a position on the bloodiest-ever war in the Palestinian territory

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Palestinians flee to northern Gaza as Israeli tanks block the Salah al-Din road in the central Gaza Strip. The UNHRC demanded a halt to all arms sales to Israel, highlighting warnings of “genocide” in its war in Gaza. Photo: AP
Agence France-Presse
The UN Human Rights Council on Friday demanded a halt to all arms sales to Israel, highlighting warnings of “genocide” in its war in Gaza, which has killed more than 33,000 people.
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The resolution, which passed with 28 of the council’s 47 member states voting in favour, six opposed and 13 abstaining, marked the first time the United Nations’ top rights body has taken a position on the bloodiest-ever war to beset the besieged Palestinian territory.

Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, slammed the resolution as “a stain for the Human Rights Council and for the UN as a whole”.

A boy stands in front of the rubble after an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 33,037 people, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. Photo: Xinhua
A boy stands in front of the rubble after an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 33,037 people, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. Photo: Xinhua

The strongly worded text called on countries to “cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel... to prevent further violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights”.

It stressed that the International Court of Justice ruled in January “that there is a plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza.

Friday’s resolution, which was brought forward by Pakistan on behalf of all Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states except Albania, calls for “an immediate ceasefire” and “for immediate emergency humanitarian access and assistance”.
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“We need you all to wake up and stop this genocide, a genocide televised around the world,” Palestinian ambassador Ibrahim Mohammad Khraishi told the council before the vote.

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