The United Nations top human rights diplomat has called for Israeli settlements to be classified as war crimes.

Presenting his latest report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, Michael Lynk said the settlements constitute a violation of the absolute prohibition against settler implantation.

The UN Special Rapporteur said this finding compels the international community to make it clear to Israel that its illegal occupation and its defiance of international law and international opinion, can and will no longer be cost-free.