'Barrier a serious HR violation'

The barrier "entails serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law," the group said in a briefing paper released just hours before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) begins debating the legality of the vast enterprise. "Israel's separation barrier seriously impedes Palestinian access to essentials of civilian life, such as work, education and medical care," said Joe Stork, acting head of the group's Middle East and North Africa division.

By confining more than 100,000 civilians inside enclaves which are regulated by a highly-complex regime of permits, the barrier will "institutionalise a system in which all movement for large numbers of people is sharply curtailed," thereby endangering access to basic services, the group said.

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Israel claims its "counter-terror fence" is purely to prevent the infiltration of militants -- justifying it by Sunday's suicide bombing which killed seven people aboard a Jerusalem bus -- but the Palestinians see it as little more than a land-grab and a bid to pre-empt the borders of a future Palestinian state.