This is how armageddon begins : U.N. report on Gaza says Israeli forces may have committed war crimes

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JERUSALEM — Israeli security forces may have committed war crimes and should be held individually and collectively accountable for the deaths of 189 Palestinian protesters in Gaza last year, according to a report published Thursday by the United Nations.

The U.N. Commission of Inquiry criticized Israel’s rules of engagement and said the majority of the Palestinians killed “did not pose an immediate threat of death or serious injury to others when they were shot.”

The report also noted that thousands of demonstrators have been maimed by Israeli snipers during the weekly protests along the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the report, saying it “set a new record for U.N. hypocrisy” and was “based purely on an obsessive hatred of Israel.”