Leaders from all sides increasing tensions in Gaza with inflammatory rhetoric: UN rights chief

UN high commissioner for human rights said instead of seeking to calm tensions in Gaza, leaders from all sides are increasing tensions with their inflammatory rhetoric.

The United Nations' human rights chief is urging all in what has developed into a battle between Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers to lower tensions, and faulted actions by both sides. Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement issued in Geneva on Saturday that "rather than seeking to calm tensions, inflammatory rhetoric from leaders on all sides appears to be seeking to excite tensions rather than to calm them".