The United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution Wednesday to send an "independent international fact-finding mission" to investigate the Israeli raid on a flotilla of activists with aid bound for the Gaza Strip, which left at least nine people dead, dpa reported.
The motion, which also condemned the pre-dawn raid on Monday and called for a lifting of the blockade on Gaza, passed by a vote of 32- 3, with nine abstentions.
The United States voted against, along with Norway and Italy, while other European Union states abstained, as did Japan.
Addressing the 47 member council, US ambassador in Geneva Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe said her country was concerned by the "deteriorating humanitarian and human rights situation in Gaza," and regrets the loss of life in the operation.
"It is our hope, that over time, the council will be balanced," she said in explaining the "no" vote.
EU countries said they had tried to insert language would would have allowed them to vote yes, but the negotiations did not bear fruit.
The Netherlands said the rights council should not go beyond the decision of the UN Security Council from earlier in the week, which condemned the "acts" that lead to the deaths in the raid and called for a "credible and transparent" investigation, without imposing the nature of the inquiry.
Diplomats say Turkey took a tough stance in the behind-the-scenes negotiations and demanded the international investigation and total lifting of the blockade.
Many of the hundreds of arrested activists are Turkish citizens as are several, if not all, of the people killed in the raid.
Officials said the search for experts to take part in the fact-finding mission had not yet begun.
"We will look for clean and independent people," said one diplomat.