ISRAEL must be investigated for war crimes of “wanton destruction,” says Amnesty International UK in a damning report published today.

The human rights group said Israel’s campaign to expand a “buffer zone” along the eastern perimeter of the occupied Gaza Strip should be the subject of a war crimes probe.

This came as the Israelis continued deadly raids across the occupied West Bank.

Amnesty said that its researchers had interviewed residents and farmers, studied satellite imagery and tracked statements by the Israeli authorities, Hamas and other armed groups to determine whether the destruction was lawful or justifiable in military terms.

The report said that in four areas, “the destruction was carried out after the Israeli military had operational control over the areas, meaning that it was not caused by direct combat between the Israeli military and Palestinian armed groups.”

In those areas of Gaza, “structures were deliberately and systematically demolished,” the authors added.

Amnesty said the “punitive demolition of civilian property solely because it has been used by armed groups is prohibited as a form of collective punishment.”

Research, advocacy, policy and campaigns director Erika Guevara Rosas said: “The Israeli military’s relentless campaign of ruin in Gaza is one of wanton destruction.

“Our research has shown how Israeli forces have obliterated residential buildings, forced thousands of families from their homes and rendered their land uninhabitable.

“Our analysis reveals a pattern along the eastern perimeter of Gaza that is consistent with the systematic destruction of an entire area.”

She added: “These homes were not destroyed as the result of intense fighting. Rather, the Israeli military deliberately razed the land after they had taken control of the area.”

In the West Bank, Israeli forces were inflicting widespread destruction in the city and refugee camp of Tulkarem as a large-scale military operation in the area entered a third day, the Wafa news agency reported.

Citing correspondents on the ground, the agency said Israeli forces had dropped bombs on the refugee camp, starting fires in al-Shamaliya neighbourhood.

The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs has warned that Israeli forces are using “lethal war-like tactics,” including air strikes, in the occupied Palestinian territory, with people being killed, injured, displaced or deprived of access to basic services.

The Israeli military’s latest assault across the West Bank is now in its eighth day. At least 33 Palestinians have been killed and 130 wounded since last Wednesday, the vast majority in Jenin.