Sri Lanka, Feb. 7 -- Israel has told the United Nations Human Rights Council that it is disengaging from the body, alleging it was biased, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Thursday.

Council members have frequently raised allegations of Israeli human rights violations in the Gaza war, while a U.N. inquiry it set up found last year that the immense scale of killings amounted to a crime against humanity.

Israel rejected the finding and says it takes care to avoid civilian casualties. It has long criticised the Geneva-based body and has disengaged in the past.

In a letter to UNHRC President Jorg Lauber, Saar said: "The decision was reached in light of the ongoing and unrelenting institutional bias against Israel in the Human Rights Cou...