Rights group Amnesty International said Monday that the fence Israel is building to separate itself from the Palestinians in the West Bank is illegal, has caused the Palestinians death and suffering, and should be torn down.

The barrier, mostly razor wire-tipped fences and shorter sections of concrete walls, already stretches for 220 miles - and is planned to cover 450 miles when it is finished - also risks prolonging, rather than ending the conflict, Amnesty said in a report on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

Israel has said the barrier, deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice because it runs through occupied territory, has stopped Palestinian suicide bombers from reaching its cities and could be removed under a future peace agreement.

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"Israel's ... legitimate security concerns are no excuse for blatant violations of international law, nor the mistreatment of thousands of Palestinians in a massive program of collective punishment," Amnesty's U.K. director Kate Allen said.

"The Palestinian economy has virtually collapsed under the weight of harsh restrictions by Israel ... This has only fuelled despair and poverty among a young and increasingly radicalized Palestinian population," she added.

Amnesty's report, named "Enduring Occupation - Palestinians under siege in the West Bank," also attacked Israel's policy of mobile checkpoints which it said had directly caused deaths by imposing unnecessary delays on people trying to get to hospital.

"Contrary to official claims about Israel's overall security needs, the checkpoints and restricted West Bank roads appear to exist mainly for the benefit of Israel's settlements - settlements that are themselves illegal," Allen said.

The 50-page report says the separation fence has deliberately been built to seize Palestinian land amounting to 10 percent of the West Bank in what it describes at a state-sponsored land grab.

Palestinian homes are being bulldozed and Israeli settlements on Palestinian land - judged illegal by the United Nations Security Council - are in effect being sanctioned as the barrier is diverted around them, the report said.

It catalogued a series of ill or injured people who it said had died as a result of delays passing through the West Bank separation fence's 550 checkpoints or mobile checkpoints, or who had been shot dead by Israeli security forces manning watchtowers on the barrier.

It noted the 100-kilometer journey from Hebron in the south of the West Bank to Nablus in the north took less than two hours for Israeli settlers but could take most of a day or was not possible at all for Palestinians.

Amnesty said the separation fence created a breeding ground for Palestinian resentment against Israel and, if completed to plan, it would encircle 12 West Bank villages and 31,400 people, with more than half a million Palestinians living within a kilometer of it.

Amnesty called on Israel to end the closures and movement restrictions, stop building the fence and tear down those parts on Palestinian territory, stop building Israeli settlements and destroying Palestinian homes.