LONDON, Sept 8: Israel must put an end to the imposition of disproportionate and discriminatory restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in the occupied territories, Amnesty International said on Monday.

The restrictions had crippled the Palestinian economy and caused widespread poverty, unemployment and increasing health problems, the London-based human rights organization said in a new report.

Closures, blockades, checkpoints, curfews and other restrictions imposed by the Israeli army had made journeys between towns and villages difficult, dangerous and often impossible, Amnesty said.

It characterized the measures as “a form of town arrest” for more than three million Palestinians.

The restrictions had prevented Palestinians from reaching workplaces and distributing their products, factories and farms had gone out of business, transport costs had increased and export markets had been lost, Amnesty said.

“Unemployment has soared to over 50 per cent, more than half the population is now living below the poverty line and malnutrition and other illnesses have increased,” it said.

Amnesty noted that most Palestinians in the occupied territories were forced to rely, to some degree at least, on charity for food and other basic needs.

It acknowledged, however, that Israel had the right to take “reasonable, necessary and proportionate measures to protect the security of its citizens and its borders from attacks by Palestinian armed groups”.

This included restricting access to its territory, but Israel did not have the right to impose arbitrary, discriminatory or collective measures and punishment on the Palestinian population, Amnesty said.

The construction in recent months of a wall and fence on the West Bank had resulted in further restrictions on the movement of Palestinians, “cutting tens of thousands of people from the rest of the West Bank and/or from their farming land and irrigation water,” it said.

It called on Israel to refrain from constructing permanent structures inside the occupied territories causing permanent restrictions on the free movement of the population, pointing out that most of the wall ran deep inside the West Bank and not along the pre-1967 border.

Amnesty also urged Israel to put an immediate end to the construction or expansion of Israeli settlements and to evacuate Israeli settlers from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“Israel should have never transferred its civilian population into the occupied territories. This is a violation of international humanitarian law,” Amnesty said.

It repeated its call on Palestinian armed groups to end their policy of killing and targeting Israeli civilians, including settlers, whether inside Israel or in the occupied territories.

“Similarly, the Palestinian Authority should take urgent measures to prevent such attacks by Palestinian armed groups and carry out thorough investigations in all cases,” Amnesty said.

Amnesty renewed its call on Israel to end extrajudicial executions and other killings of civilians. —dpa