The U.N. human rights chief has expressed disappointment with Israel over its "immediate dismissal" of a report about deadly violence by Israel security forces against protesters in Gaza last year.
The comments from Michelle Bachelet, a former Chilean president, came on Wednesday during her first annual address to the Human Rights Council since becoming the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in September.
Bachelet lamented that Israel responded to a report published Monday on the Gaza violence "without addressing any of the serious issues raised."
The report commissioned by the council found Israeli soldiers intentionally fired on civilians and could have committed crimes against humanity in crackdowns that killed 189 people and left 6,000 hurt by sniper fire.
Bachelet made "gross inequalities" in the world a major theme in her speech.
Meanwhile, the publication of a U.N. database of companies with business ties to Israeli settlements has been delayed again.
The issue is highly sensitive as companies appearing in such a database could be targeted for boycotts or divestment aimed at stepping up pressure on Israel. Goods produced there include fruit, vegetables and wine.
Israel has assailed the database, whose creation was agreed by the U.N. Human Rights Council in March 2016, as a "blacklist."
Bachelet said on Tuesday that despite progress made since launching the study, further work was needed due to the "novelty of the mandate and its legal, methodological and factual complexity."
Her office aimed to finalize and issue the study "in coming months", she said in a letter to the Human Rights Council.
The World Jewish Congress said its CEO, Robert Singer, had met Bachelet last month and urged the cancellation of the database.
The New York-headquartered group welcomed the delay to publication, saying in a statement the report should be put off for good as it would financially hurt thousands of employees, both Israeli and Palestinian, of targeted companies.
