GENEVA, April 5, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - The UN Human Rights Council was on Friday

debating whether to demand a halt in arms sales to Israel, whose war in Gaza
has killed more than 33,000 people, mostly civilians.

If the text is adopted, it would mark the first time that the United Nations'
top rights body has taken a position on the bloodiest-ever war to beset the
besieged Palestinian territory.

The draft text calls on countries to "cease the sale, transfer and diversion
of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel".

This, it said, is needed among other things "to prevent further violations of
international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights".

It stresses that the International Court of Justice ruled in January "that
there is a plausible risk of genocide" in Gaza.

Friday's draft 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".

It comes after the UN Security Council in New York last week also finally
passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire -- thanks to an abstention from
Washington, Israel's closest ally and largest arms supplier.

However, the ceasefire demand has had no impact on the ground.

The war in Gaza war began after Hamas's October 7 attack, which resulted in
the deaths of about 1,170 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an
AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Palestinian militants also took more than 250 hostages on October 7, and 130
remain in Gaza, including 34 who the army says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 33,037 people, mostly women
and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

- Does not name Hamas -

The rights council draft resolution does not name Hamas but it does condemn
the firing of rockets at Israeli civilian areas and demands "the immediate
release of all remaining hostages".

The strongly worded text repeatedly names Israel, stressing it is "the
occupying Power".

It demands that Israel end its occupation of all Palestinian territories and
"immediately lift its blockade on the Gaza Strip and all other forms of
collective punishment".

The text, which was revised late on Thursday removing several references to
genocide, continues to express "grave concern at statements by Israeli
officials amounting to incitement to genocide".

And it urges countries to "prevent the continued forcible transfer of
Palestinians within and from Gaza".

It warns in particular "against any large-scale military operations in the
city of Rafah" in the south of the densely populated Gaza Strip, where well
over one million civilians are sheltering, warning of "devastating
humanitarian consequences".

- Starvation -

The draft resolution also condemns "the use of starvation of civilians as a
method of warfare in Gaza", where the UN has warned that famine is looming.

And it slammed "the unlawful denial of humanitarian access, wilful impediment
to relief supplies and deprivation of objects indispensable to the survival
of civilians, including food, water, electricity, fuel and
telecommunications, by Israel".

The text also condemns Israel's "use of explosive weapons with wide area
effects by Israel in populated areas in Gaza".

Friday's draft resolution deplores the fact that Israel has persistently
refused to cooperate with numerous investigations ordered by the UN rights
council.

And it insists on the "imperative of credible, timely and comprehensive
accountability for all violations of international law" in Gaza.

It calls on the Commission of Inquiry on the rights situation in the occupied
Palestinian territories -- the highest-level UN investigation launched prior
to October 7 -- to probe all "direct and indirect transfer or sale of arms,
munitions, parts, components and dual use items to Israel, the occupying
Power".

The team, it said, should identify the weapons used since October 7 and
"analyse the legal consequences of these transfers".

The investigators should present their findings to the council at its 59th
session, which will be held in mid-2025, it said.