GENEVA, May 18, 2018 (WAFA) – The UN Human Rights Council voted on Friday in favor of sending a team of international war crimes investigators to Gaza look into the murder of over 60 Palestinians by Israeli forces last week.

With 29 votes in favor, two opposed and 14 abstentions, the UN top human rights body voted on a resolution calling on the council to “urgently dispatch an independent international commission of inquiry... to investigate all alleged violations and abuses... in the context of the military assaults on large scale civilian protests that began on 30 March 2018.”

The US and Australia were the only two countries that voted against the resolution.

“Nobody has been made safer by the horrific events of the past week,” UN human rights chief Zeid Ra‘ad al-Hussein said during the UNHRC session.

He said Israeli forces had killed 106 Palestinians, including 15 children and injured more than 12,000 others, including 3,500 by live ammunition, since March 30.

Commenting on the approved resolution, Minister of Foreign and Expatriates Affairs Riyad al-Malki praised UNHRC for adopting the resolution and thanked the 29 countries that voted in favor.

"Those who want peace and a two-state solution must support international law, accountability and justice, and should not to abstain from voting on resolutions that abide by international law, because this encourages Israeli war criminals to continue their crimes," he said.

Al-Malki called on the international community to "implement the provisions of this resolution and to accelerate the cessation of Israeli war crimes and protect the Palestinian people from the Israeli oppression."

M.N