UN War Crimes Panel Urges Israel to Stop Using Lethal Force Against Gaza Protesters

• UN War Crimes Panel Urges Israel to Stop Using Lethal Force Against Gaza Protesters
  by Reuters, via https://www.haaretz.com/
  Israeli snipers use ‘high velocity bullets and long-range sniper rifles’ to disperse crowds, instead of rubber bullets, investigator tells Human Rights Council
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  UN war crimes investigators called on Israel on Monday to stop its snipers from using lethal force against protesters on the border with Gaza, as the anniversary of the start of demonstrations last year, which saw 189 Palstinian killed, approaches.
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  The Commission of Inquiry said Israel should investigate the shooting of more than 6,000 people, far beyond the criminal inquiries it has announced into 11 killings. 
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  “The most important thing for the government of Israel is to review the rules of engagement immediately and to ensure that the rules of engagement are according to accepted international law standards,” the commission’s chairman Santiago Canton told the Human Rights Council. 
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  Israel says the UN council is biased, and it boycotted the day-long debate, while hundreds of Israel supporters rallied outside the United Nations in Geneva, including senior U.S. officials.
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  Canton said Israel’s Supreme Court should review the confidential rules governing lethal force after the panel found it had been “in the majority of cases authorised unlawfully”.
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  “In a situation of crowd control, which is the way we see these demonstrations, rubber bullets could have been used,” Canton told reporters, rather than “high velocity bullets and long-range sniper rifles equipped with sophisticated optical aiming devices”. 
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