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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has called on the British government to freeze arms sales to Israel and to condemn the Tel Aviv government for its killings of Palestinians in Gaza.

“The UN says Israel’s killings of demonstrators in Gaza – including children, paramedics and journalists – may constitute ‘war crimes or crimes against humanity’”, Corbyn wrote on his Twitter account.

His comments followed a United Nations report which noted the Israeli army’s violations of human rights in the besieged Gaza Strip.

“The UK government must unequivocally condemn the killings and freeze arms sales to Israel”, he added.

Comment: Criticism of Israeli policy is not anti-Semitic

Earlier this week, the UN released a report saying Israel’s actions in the besieged Gaza Strip constitute as “crimes against humanity”.

”Israeli soldiers committed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Some of those violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity," the chair of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Santiago Canton, said in a statement.

Palestinians have for nearly a year gathered at least weekly along the Gaza border fence for often non-violent marches to demand an end to the Israeli siege on Gaza and the right for Palestinians to return to their homes lost since Israel's creation in 1948.

Most Palestinian refugees were forcibly displaced then, an event the Palestinians mark as the Nakba or the Catastrophe.

At least 248 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since then, the majority shot during clashes, though others have been hit by tank fire or airstrikes.

Two Israeli soldiers have been killed over the same period.

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