The UN human rights chief says Israel used wholly disproportionate force against Palestinian border protests that have left over 100 people dead.
Zeid Raad Al Hussein told a meeting in Geneva that Gazans were effectively caged inside a toxic slum and Gaza's occupation by Israel had to end.
Israel's ambassador said Gaza's militant Islamist rulers had deliberately put people in harm's way.
The UN meeting is considering calling for the independent investigation.
Some 60 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces on Monday inside the seventh consecutive week of border protests, largely orchestrated by Hamas, which politically controls the Gaza Strip.
It was eventually the deadliest day in Gaza since a 2014 war between Israel and militants there.
The protests were dubbed the Great March of Return, in support from the declared right of Palestinian refugees to go back to land they or their ancestors fled from or were forced to leave inside the war which followed Israel's founding in 1948.
The Israeli government, that has long ruled out a mass return of Palestinians, said terrorists wanted to make use of the protests as cover to cross into its territory and carry out attacks.
'Wilful killings'
Mr Zeid told the emergency session on Gaza the stark contrast in casualties on each side is... suggestive of the wholly disproportionate response by Israel.
An Israeli soldier was reportedly wounded, slightly, using a stone on Monday, he said, while 43 Palestinians were killed in the site from the protests. Seventeen more Palestinians were killed far from what he known as hot spots.
He said there were little evidence of any Israeli plan to minimise casualties. Israel's actions might, he said, constitute 'wilful killings' - a grave breach from the Fourth Geneva Convention, an international law designed to guard civilians under occupation.
Mr Zeid said he supported a call for the international, independent and impartial investigation straight into the violence in Gaza, adding that those liable for violations must ultimately be held accountable.
The occupation must end, he said, so the folks of Palestine could be liberated, and the folks of Israel liberated from it.
End the occupation, and also the violence and insecurity will largely disappear.
Israel occupied Gaza inside the 1967 Middle East war. Although it withdrew its forces and settlers in 2005, the UN still considers the territory occupied because Israel retains control during the territory's air space, coastal waters and shared border.
'A broken body'
Israel's Ambassador Aviva Raz Shechter rejected the blame, saying it was eventually Israel, certainly not Hamas which attempted to avoid harming civilians.
She said the UN Human Rights Council had returned to its worst sort of anti-Israel obsession.
The US Chargé d'Affaires Theodore Allegra agreed, saying the one-sided action proposed from the Council today only further shows the Human Rights Council is indeed a broken body.
Tens of lots and lots of Palestinians have held weekly protests in the border inside the lead-up towards the 15 May anniversary from the mass displacement of Palestinians from land which became Israel inside the war which followed Israel's founding in 1948.
While most Palestinians have demonstrated with a distance coming from the heavily guarded fence, Israel said its soldiers only used lethal force against people carrying out terrorist activity and never on demonstrators.
Zeid Raad Al Hussein told a meeting in Geneva that Gazans were effectively caged inside a toxic slum and Gaza's occupation by Israel had to end.
Israel's ambassador said Gaza's militant Islamist rulers had deliberately put people in harm's way.
The UN meeting is considering calling for the independent investigation.
Some 60 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces on Monday inside the seventh consecutive week of border protests, largely orchestrated by Hamas, which politically controls the Gaza Strip.
It was eventually the deadliest day in Gaza since a 2014 war between Israel and militants there.
The protests were dubbed the Great March of Return, in support from the declared right of Palestinian refugees to go back to land they or their ancestors fled from or were forced to leave inside the war which followed Israel's founding in 1948.
The Israeli government, that has long ruled out a mass return of Palestinians, said terrorists wanted to make use of the protests as cover to cross into its territory and carry out attacks.
'Wilful killings'
Mr Zeid told the emergency session on Gaza the stark contrast in casualties on each side is... suggestive of the wholly disproportionate response by Israel.
An Israeli soldier was reportedly wounded, slightly, using a stone on Monday, he said, while 43 Palestinians were killed in the site from the protests. Seventeen more Palestinians were killed far from what he known as hot spots.
He said there were little evidence of any Israeli plan to minimise casualties. Israel's actions might, he said, constitute 'wilful killings' - a grave breach from the Fourth Geneva Convention, an international law designed to guard civilians under occupation.
Mr Zeid said he supported a call for the international, independent and impartial investigation straight into the violence in Gaza, adding that those liable for violations must ultimately be held accountable.
The occupation must end, he said, so the folks of Palestine could be liberated, and the folks of Israel liberated from it.
End the occupation, and also the violence and insecurity will largely disappear.
Israel occupied Gaza inside the 1967 Middle East war. Although it withdrew its forces and settlers in 2005, the UN still considers the territory occupied because Israel retains control during the territory's air space, coastal waters and shared border.
'A broken body'
Israel's Ambassador Aviva Raz Shechter rejected the blame, saying it was eventually Israel, certainly not Hamas which attempted to avoid harming civilians.
She said the UN Human Rights Council had returned to its worst sort of anti-Israel obsession.
The US Chargé d'Affaires Theodore Allegra agreed, saying the one-sided action proposed from the Council today only further shows the Human Rights Council is indeed a broken body.
Tens of lots and lots of Palestinians have held weekly protests in the border inside the lead-up towards the 15 May anniversary from the mass displacement of Palestinians from land which became Israel inside the war which followed Israel's founding in 1948.
While most Palestinians have demonstrated with a distance coming from the heavily guarded fence, Israel said its soldiers only used lethal force against people carrying out terrorist activity and never on demonstrators.
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