UN rights chief says Israel attacks on Gaza could constitute war crimes and accuses Hamas of firing indiscriminate rockets

The UN’s main human rights body will launch an investigation into “systematic discrimination and repression” in Israel and Palestine, with the aim of identifying what it said were the root causes of recent Gaza bloodshed.

The proposal for unprecedented levels of scrutiny of alleged abuses, called at the request of Muslim states, was passed by the 47-member UN human rights council on Thursday.

Related: Ireland condemns ‘de facto annexation’ of Palestinian land by Israel

This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.