Israel shuns UN rights session on Gaza onslaught

Israel has inexplicably shunned a UN Human Rights Council’s special session on the grim situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, and the Israeli military’s devastating offensive against the besieged Gaza Strip last summer. 

A source close to the council said on condition of anonymity that Israel's absence from the meeting in the Swiss city of Geneva on Monday clearly amounted to a boycott.

"We won't comment on that," a spokeswoman with the Israeli mission said. The United States also did not take part in Monday's discussions.

Monday's session had initially been organized to discuss a probe into Israel's actions during last year's war in Gaza, but the investigations were hit with a delay after the head of the team had to step down under pressure from the Israeli regime.

"The process cannot be rushed," former New York judge Mary McGowan Davis, who has taken over as new head of the team, told the council.

Israel has expressed strong dissatisfaction with the inquiry into the 2014 Gaza conflict, calling for the entire process to be shelved. Tel Aviv claims that the UN Human Rights Council and its commission are adamantly biased against it.

Israel started its latest war on the Gaza Strip in early July last year. The offensive ended on August 26, 2014, with a truce that took effect after indirect negotiations in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

Nearly 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children, were killed in Israel’s 50-day onslaught. Over 11,100 others - including 3,374 children, 2,088 women and 410 elderly people - were also injured.

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