GENEVA: About a third of Palestinians killed by Israel since an October truce were in areas near the military’s armistice line with Hamas, raising concerns that troops may be shooting at civilians merely for approaching the area, the UN human rights office said.
The office said such actions would constitute unlawful killings and thus war crimes.
Israel’s military, which says fire by its troops near the armistice line aims to thwart militant threats, did not immediately provide comment on the allegations.
Some 900 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since the October ceasefire, Gaza health authorities say.
Israel has demarcated its armistice boundary with Hamas since the truce with a “yellow line” marked on the ground with spaced out concrete blocks. Israeli troops remain deployed to its east, with Hamas in control of a coastal strip of land.
