On Saturday, John Dugard, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories, accused Israel of committing war crimes for carrying out bombing raids that killed and injured civilians.

A new United Nations reports paints a devastating picture of life in occupied Gaza and the West Bank. 79 percent of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip live in poverty. The water supply to the Gaza Strip is approximately half the international standard. The number of physical barriers in the West Bank increased last year to 563. Some 10,000 Palestinians who live in enclaves west of the West Bank wall are cut off from vital health and education services and from family and social networks. The United Nations released the report as part of its Consolidated Appeal to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for the Palestinian population.