The Washington-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Israel has restricted movement of Palestinians.

In its annual report, the HRW elaborated that Israel has imposed ‘excessive’ restrictions on movement, particularly in the West Bank and East Jerusalem during 2006.

The report maintained that in August2006, Israel increased the number of roadblocks to 540, compared with 376 in 2005.

HRW pointed out that the Israeli government withheld custom money due to the Palestinian Authority, following the installation of a Hamas-led government in January2006 democratic elections.

In another human rights abuse, the report referred to the Israeli army insufficient probes into killings of civilians, with reference to the June2006 Israeli army massive attacks on the Gaza Strip for the alleged release of corporal Gila’s Shalit, who has been held by resistance groups in Gaza.

Half of 449 Palestinians, killed by the Israeli army in Gaza, have not been involved in fighting, the report confirmed.

With respect to the Israeli separation barrier (Apartheid Wall), the human rights watchdog revealed that %85 of such a wall, which is delving deep into Palestinian-owned lands in the West Bank, has crossed the Israel-West Bank border line, known as the ‘Green Line’.

The organization also warned that such a wall will likely be marked as permanent borders of Israel, which means %10 of the West Bank territories would be annexed to Israel.

Since June2006, the Israeli army has been waging massive military actions on the Gaza Strip under the pretext of releasing Gil’ad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian resistance groups after a resistance attack on a military base. These military actions have caused destruction of main infrastructure like ministerial buildings, bridges and Gaza main power plant.