Amnesty International in its annual report has accused the Israeli Zionist regime of committing 'serious human rights abuses' against Palestinians.

The body, in its report released in May said that not only Israeli soldiers but also Israeli settlers have violated human rights in Palestinian occupied lands in 2006.

"Israeli soldiers and settlers committed serious human rights abuses, including unlawful killings, against Palestinians, mostly with impunity," said the Amnesty report.

It also said civilians bore the brunt of rising violence last year between Israelis and Palestinians that saw a three-fold jump in Palestinians killed.

In the Palestinian territories, Israeli air and artillery strikes killed some 650 people, half of them unarmed civilians and including some 120 children [in 2006], "a threefold increase compared with 2005."

Amnesty International also blamed the regime for putting blockades and restrictions on Palestinian residents, saying, "Military blockades and increased restrictions imposed by Israel on the movement of Palestinians and the confiscation by Israel of Palestinian custom duties caused a significant deterioration in living conditions for Palestinian inhabitants of the occupied territories, with poverty, food aid dependency, health problems and unemployment reaching crisis levels."

The Zionist regime began withholding taxes collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority after the democratically elected party of Hamas came to power in 2006.

The report referred to the 33-day war in Lebanon last summer, saying, "Israeli forces carried out indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on a large scale".

It added, "Israeli forces also appear to have carried out direct attacks on civilian infrastructure intended to inflict a form of collective punishment on Lebanon's people."