JERUSALEM — A new U.N. report that has been distributed to members of the Security Council strongly criticizes Israel for using live fire against unarmed demonstrators who tried in May to breach its border fence from Lebanon.
Israel is planning to respond in a letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, officials said Thursday.
The United Nations has been a frequent battleground for Israel, whose diplomats are 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 Israel first issued verbal warnings and fired into the air before directing live fire at the mostly Palestinian protesters, killing seven civilians and wounding 111.
But other than firing into the air, it said, Israel did not employ “conventional crowd control methods or any other method than lethal weapons against the demonstrators.”
The New York Times
