UN rights chief: Buffer zone plans a 'war crime'

Israel's attempts to create a "buffer zone" in the Gaza Strip through the widespread destruction of buildings inside the enclave is a war crime, the UN rights chief warned on Thursday.

Volker Turk said in a statement that Israel's "extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, amounts to a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and a war crime."

A Hebrew University study cited by The Wall Street Journal in late January said Israel had razed nearly 40 percent of the 2,824 buildings in Gaza located within a kilometre of the border.

According to the report much of the land that has now been turned into a military zone, was agricultural land.