NB Explains | India abstains as UN votes on Israel ‘war crimes’, immediate ceasefire in Gaza

New Delhi, April 6: In a significant development, India was among 13 countries that abstained as the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Friday adopted a resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The resolution also called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and demanded the cease of the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel to “prevent further violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights”.

India was among 13 countries who abstained on the resolution, along with Japan, The Netherlands, France and Romania. As many as 28 countries voted in favour of the resolution, including China, Brazil, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Maldives, UAE, Qatar, and South Africa, among others. Meanwhile, six countries voted against the resolution, including the US, Argentina, Bulgaria, Germany, Malawi, Paraguay.

The UNHRC adopted five resolutions, of which India voted in favour of three. The country was among 42 who voted in favour of a resolution on the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination. India also voted in favour of a resolution, along with 28 countries, demanding Israel to immediately cease all settlement-related plans and activities in the occupied Syrian Golan.

Another resolution calling for Israel to immediately "end without delay" its occupation of Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan, occupied since 1967, was also voted in favour by India.

The development came days after the killing of seven international aid workers in an Israeli strike in Gaza, an incident that drew condemnation around the world. Israel gave in to unprecedented pressure from the US and opened new food corridors into Gaza, while the Israeli Defence Forces said two senior military commanders responsible for ordering the strike on the aid workers had been sacked.

Countries that abstained or voted against the resolution noted that it refrained from mentioning Hamas, whose brazen terror attacks on October 7 last year had triggered the conflict. Israel criticised the resolution and accused the Human Rights Council of having “abandoned the Israeli people”.