The U.N. Human Rights Council convened a special meeting in Geneva Friday to discuss the violence on the Israel-Gaza Strip border.
Some 120 Palestinians were killed and thousands have been wounded since Hamas, the terrorist group that rules the coastal enclave launched its "March of Return" campaign on March 30. Sixty Palestinians, 50 of them Hamas operatives, were killed on Monday, in the deadliest riots since Gaza's rulers launched their campaign.
The Israeli military has repeatedly presented proof that Hamas terrorists were using the protests as cover to try and breach the border, place explosives on the security fence and stage terrorist attacks.
Israeli Ambassador to the UNHRC Aviva Raz Shechter told the council that Israel spares no effort to minimize casualties when it defends its borders against Gaza terrorists, and blamed Hamas for using human shields.
Responding to criticism from UNHRC Commissioner Zeid Raad al-Hussein, she said the council had returned to its "worst form of anti-Israel obsession."
"This special session, the resolution before you, and its call for a commission of inquiry are yet again politically motivated and won't change the situation on the ground by even one iota," she said.
Al-Hussein said there was "little evidence" that Israel made an effort to minimize casualties, noting that "protesters' actions alone do not appear to constitute an imminent threat to life or deadly injury which could justify the use of lethal force."
He further accused Israel of "systematically depriving Palestinians of their human rights," saying they were "caged in a toxic slum from birth to death."
Al-Hussein said the session will consider a resolution calling for an "independent international commission of inquiry."
"Nobody has been made safer by the horrific events of the past week," he said. If Israel "ends the occupation, and the violence and insecurity will largely disappear," he declared.
