UN rights office to hold special session on Palestine

ANKARA 

The UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session on May 27 to discuss the "grave human rights situation" in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, the body announced on Thursday.

"The special session is being convened per an official request submitted late yesterday jointly by Pakistan, as Coordinator of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation [OIC], and the State of Palestine," it said in a statement.

In a letter sent Wednesday to the UN rights office, Ambassador Khalil Hashmi, coordinator of the OIC on human rights and humanitarian issues, and Ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi, permanent observer of Palestine, requested holding a special session "due to the urgency of the current situation."

Along with the letter, the ambassadors also attached two Annex documents with OIC countries as well as non-OIC countries -- that are members and observers of the Human Rights Council -- that support the request for the special session.

Among non-OIC countries, China, South Africa, Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Mexico, Namibia, and Eritrea have supported the convening of this special session.

An estimated 4,500 Palestinians are believed to be held in Israeli prisons, including 39 women and 350 administrative detainees, according to data compiled by organizations on the rights of prisoners.

At least 230 Palestinians have been killed, including 65 children and 39 women, and over 1,700 others injured in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since May 10, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Health centers, media offices and residential neighborhoods have been targeted.

Recent tensions that started in East Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan spread to Gaza as a result of Israeli assaults on worshippers in the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.