Nigeria, April 28 -- Israeli authorities are committing crimes of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians, global advocacy group, Human Rights Watch, has said in its latest report.

The 213-page report released Tuesday said the term apartheid has generally been used in a "descriptive or comparative" sense in relation to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories and as a warning of what might happen if current trajectories with regard to Palestinians continue.

The organisation argued that based on existing international law, the overarching Israeli policy toward Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem constituted an agenda to both maintain Jewish Israeli domination and systematically oppress Palestinians.

The report...