UN Report Blasts Israel For Actions At Border

The New York Times reports:

A new United Nations report strongly criticizes Israel for using live fire against unarmed demonstrators who tried in May to breach its border fence from Lebanon. Israel is planning a detailed and critical response to the report in a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the next few days, officials here said on Thursday.

The United Nations has been a frequent battleground for Israel, whose diplomats are currently working to oppose a bid by the Palestinians for international recognition of statehood at the Security Council and the General Assembly this fall.

The report states that Israel first issued verbal warnings and fired into the air before directing live fire at the mostly Palestinian protesters, killing seven civilians and injuring 111. But other than firing in the air, it said, Israel did not employ “conventional crowd control methods or any other method than lethal weapons against the demonstrators.”