Israel is committing a war crime by collectively punishing Palestinian civilians and Croatia should punish that, Andrew Stroehlein of the Human Rights Watch has told Hina.

“There is absolutely no question that (the) Hamas attack should be condemned and treated as a war crime… We also need to see European governments, including Croatia’s government, condemning what Israel is doing. It’s a principle,” he said.

“We should be against war crimes, whether those war crimes are committed by our friends or our enemies,” he added.

According to Hamas’ data, over 12,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip.

Should children be punished, Stroehlein asked and called for Israel to end the blockade of the Gaza Strip.

“There is no permission to respond to war crimes with war crimes. Collective punishment is what Israel is doing in Gaza now by cutting (off) water, by cutting (off) electricity, by blocking food aid and other medical supplies. It’s punishing 2.2 million people for (the) horrific acts of small group,” he said.

“If one side commits atrocities, the other side cannot do whatever it wants,” he added. “If your neighbour comes and burns your house, you don’t come and burn the neighbour’s house. Both of those things are illegal.”

On Wednesday, the Israeli government and Hamas agreed a temporary truce, the liberation of 50 women and children which Palestinian jihadists are holding hostage in Gaza in exchange for a four-day ceasefire and the liberation of 150 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

But the humanitarian crisis will not be solved in four days of ceasefire. Aid is arriving only via the Egypt-controlled Rafah Border Crossing, but in insufficient quantities. Two other crossings, Erez and Shalom, which connect Israel and the Gaza Strip and could accelerate the delivery of the bare necessities, are closed.

The Croatian government is “on the wrong side”

Stroehlein singled out Belgium as the EU member state which sent a strong message by condemning the war crimes of both Hamas and Israel and called for sanctioning Israel and stopping the flow of money to Hamas.

“Unfortunately, (the) government of Croatia is currently on the wrong side and is not joining with some more balanced European partners, like Belgium,” he said, adding that he expects all European governments to take a more balanced and principled approach and one supporting justice.

Bringing the perpetrators of war crimes to justice will lead to longer term stability in the Middle East, Stroehlein said. They should be tried and we will be closer to peace and security if we support justice, he added.

Pushbacks

The HRW has been warning for years about the allegedly inhumane treatment of migrants by the Croatian police. In its report “‘Like We Were Just Animals’: Pushbacks of People Seeking Protection from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina”, published in May, the HRW brings the testimonies of over 100 migrants.

“They get to the border, police beat them up and smash their phones – the only thing they have, and send them across the border in the middle of nowhere,” Stroehlein said. “I think that they probably know what they are doing is wrong. I think they know when they smash someone’s phone, push them into (a) cold river…”

Although the Croatian authorities and police reject such accusations, the HRW regularly calls on them to treat migrants humanely, while asking the EU not to look the other way from the accusations levelled at the Croatian police.

“Instead of ignoring the crimes committed by the Croatian police, the European Union should do better to make them obey the law,” Stroehlein said.