AN INTERNATIONAL human rights group issued a fresh warning on Tuesday over the complicity of the United States in alleged Israeli war crimes.

The warning from Amnesty International came as protests mounted over the visit of Israel’s far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Amnesty demanded a “comprehensive arms embargo on Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.”

The rights group said the embargo should remain in place “until there is no longer a substantial risk that arms could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international human rights or humanitarian law.”

Amnesty International US executive director Paul O’Brien said: “Enough is enough. The US government has been presented with ample evidence from experts around the world that US-origin arms have been used in war crimes and unlawful killings by the Israeli government.

“Continued weapons transfers will make the US complicit in violations of international law committed with these arms.”

Before Mr Netanyahu touched down in Washington DC, 200 protesters were arrested as they demonstrated against Israel’s onslaught against the Palestinians in Gaza.

The organisers of the protest, Jewish Voice for Peace, said the arrests took place as they protested against Washington’s military support for Israel inside a congressional office building.

The US Capitol Police said: “Demonstrating inside the congressional building is against the law.”

More protests are planned to coincide with Mr Netanyahu’s visit, during which he will address a joint session of the Congress and meet President Joe Biden and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Meanwhile seven US trade unions, representing six million workers, said on Tuesday that they called on Mr Biden to “halt all military aid to Israel.”

The unions, including the National Education Association, Service Employees International Union and the United Auto Workers, said: “We need a ceasefire now, and the best way to secure that is to shut off US military aid to Israel.”

The unions also launched the National Labour Network for a Ceasefire.

In Germany, Palestine Action said one of its autonomous groups targeted one of the offices of Elbit Systems, the Israeli weapons manufacturer, in Ulm on Tuesday because of “its prominent role in the genocide, occupation and settler-colonisation of Palestine.”

Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, told reporters in New York on Tuesday that around 150,000 Palestinians had been forced to flee the latest Israeli onslaught in Khan Younis in one day.

But, he said, “the immediate escalation of hostilities in the area also resulted in many people being trapped in the evacuation area.“