The UN's top human rights official has condemned Israel's military actions in the Gaza Strip, saying that war crimes may have been committed. Navi Pillay told an emergency debate at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that Israel's military offensive had not done enough to protect civilians.
She also condemned Hamas for "indiscriminate attacks" on Israel. Israel launched its offensive on 8 July with the declared objective of stopping rocket fire from Gaza.
"There seems to be a strong possibility that international law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes," Ms Pillay said.
However Israel, which claims the UN Human Rights Council is biased, is unlikely to co-operate with any authorised UN investigation, the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva reports.
Israel's Justice Minister, Tzipi Livni, said her country was acting according to international law. "It is regrettable civilians are killed, but when we call on them to vacate and Hamas calls on them to stay, then that is what happens," she told Israel radio.
Ms Livni also described the UN Human Rights Council as an "anti-Israel" body.
'Heart-wrenching split'
At least 649 Palestinians and 31 Israelis have been killed in the past 15 days of fighting, officials say. A foreign worker in southern Israel was also killed by a rocket fired from Gaza on Wednesday, police said.
The UN says about 74% of those killed in Gaza are civilians, with medical clinics among the facilities hit by air strikes. Kyung-wha Kang, the assistant secretary-general at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said civilians in Gaza had no safe to place to go "as 44% of the land has been declared a 'no-go zone' by the Israeli army".
"Families are taking the heart-wrenching decision to split to different locations - mother and son to one; father and daughter to another - hoping to maximise the chance one part of the family survives."
There was heavy fighting in the town of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday. At least five people died in an air strike in the town overnight. An Israeli soldier was also killed.
Witnesses say around 5,000 Palestinians, some waving white flags, are fleeing in a state of panic following a ground incursion by Israeli troops, the BBC's Paul Adams in Gaza reports.
A Palestinian woman whom the BBC filmed being pulled from the rubble of a Gaza blast on Sunday also died from her injuries, her doctor said. Ten of her relatives were killed in the blast.
(Published by BBC News – July 23, 2014)