The UN human rights chief said Saturday that Israel could face prosecution for a deadly raid on a Gaza aid flotilla and that she was following requests for a referral to the International Criminal Court. Israel has faced international condemnation after commandos stormed a fleet of ships headed for the blockaded territory Monday and killed nine people. “I am following very closely the very many calls that come particularly from civil society and from all the people who are suffering in Palestine for that kind of action to be taken,” Navi Pillay, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told journalists. Pillay, who for four years served as an ICC judge, said she believed Israel's blockade of Gaza violates international law. “I feel that in the current climate I should address the issue of the legality of such a blockade because it is being claimed by Israel that it's legal and they have powerful support for this position, unfortunately,” she said. “International humanitarian law prohibits starvation of civilians as a method of warfare ... “It is also prohibited to impose collective punishment on the civilian population, so it is (for those reasons) that I have consistently reported to member states that the blockade is illegal and must be lifted.” She added that Israel's attack Monday on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla might also constitute a prosecutable offense. “Even if it is demonstrated that the blockade is legal under international law Israel's current military operations against the flotilla must be analysed from the perspective of its obligation to allow humanitarian aid to be brought into the Gaza strip,” she argued. Turkish prosecutors probe Israeli leaders Turkish prosecutors have launched an investigation against top Israeli leaders over the raid on aid ships bound for Gaza which left nine people dead, Turkish press reports said Saturday. If the prosecutor's office in Bakirkoy, Istanbul, compiles enough evidence, it will press charges against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Mininster Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, the English-language Today's Zaman said.
