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The UK’s shadow foreign secretary condemned her country’s abstention in a United Nations vote calling for an investigation into Israel’s massacre in Gaza.

"I'm delighted by the UN's Human Rights Council resolution calling for an urgent independent investigation of Monday's massacre in Gaza, but disgusted that the UK government abstained,” Emily Thornberry tweeted on Saturday.

The UK abstained in a vote when the UN Human Rights Council in a special session resolved on Friday to investigate whether Israel's response to protests on its border with the Gaza Strip was proportionate and whether it had broken international law.

The UNHCR voted to send a team of international war crimes investigators to probe the deadly shootings of Gaza protesters by Israeli forces on Friday.

With 29 votes in favour, two opposed and 14 abstentions, the UN's top human rights body voted through a resolution calling on the council to "urgently dispatch an independent, international commission of inquiry... to investigate all alleged violations and abuses... in the context of the military assaults on large scale civilian protests that began on 30 March 2018.”

Israel has come under international pressure after the massacre of Palestinians protesting against the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem on Monday.

It was the deadliest day in the besieged territory since 2014 war.

Over 117 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since protest dubbed "Great Return March" began on 30 March calling for their right of return.

The opening of the US embassy in the contested city of Jerusalem comes at a time when Palestinians are commemorating the Nakba, or "the Catastrophe", when hundreds of thousands of were forced from their homes during the formation of Israel.