The establishment and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank amounts to Israel's relocation of its own civilian population to the territories it occupies, which constitutes a "war crime under international law."
The UN reported this today in Geneva.
For the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, "the West Bank is already in crisis. However, settler violence and settlement-related violations have reached shocking new levels and risk eliminating any practical possibility of creating a Palestinian state sustainable".
Türk deplored Israel's latest actions towards the occupied West Bank, saying the drastic acceleration in settlement construction is exacerbating long-standing patterns of oppression, violence and discrimination against Palestinians.
Recent reports that Israel intends to build another 3,476 settler homes in Maale Adumim, Efrat and Kedar "go against international law", Türk said, quoted in a UN statement.
For further information Agenzia ANSA UN, the repression of protests in Iran is a crime against humanity - Middle East - Ansa.it 'And also the institutional discrimination of women' (ANSA)
Israel, in Gaza 'the army did not shoot at the humanitarian convoy'
+ Israel: aid trucks assault, shots fired only at suspects ++
IDF investigation: 'The military did not shoot at the convoy'
The Israeli army (IDF) said that following its investigation into the assault on aid trucks in Gaza in late February that left 104 Palestinians dead, troops "did not fire on the humanitarian convoy, but fired at a number of suspects who approached the Israeli forces and posed a threat to them."
In the army's reconstruction it is stated that ''a crowd of 12 thousand Gazans'' gathered around the trucks carrying aid, to loot them.
''During the looting - states the military spokesperson - accidents occurred with significant damage to civilians, due to the crowd and the fact that people were hit by the trucks''.
The military ''did not shoot towards the humanitarian convoy'', the army reiterates.
Furthermore, during the crush, ''dozens of Gazans advanced towards the Israeli forces, until they were only a few meters away.
As a result they posed a real threat to the military."
In this phase - continued the spokesperson - ''the soldiers fired warning shots to ward off the suspects.
When
these advanced further, the soldiers fired precisely at some of them to remove the threat''.
In his statement, the spokesperson specifies that this incident will be investigated in an even more thorough manner by ''an
independent body, tasked with shedding light on incidents of an exceptional nature that occurred during the fighting''.
The conclusions will be published later.
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