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Israel’s decision to deprive Palestinian civilians living in Gaza of access to basic needs violates international law, former Human Rights Watch chief Kenneth Roth said.

“In the realm of humanitarian necessities, the Israeli government has imposed a siege on all of Gaza,” Roth said in an interview with Al Jazeera.

Roth, who now teaches at Princeton University, added that the atrocities committed by the Hamas armed group against Israeli civilians do not justify the “revenge” and “collective punishment” against Palestinian civilians.

“A basic premise of international humanitarian law is that war crimes by one side never justify war crimes by the other. There’s an independent obligation by both sides to respect the laws of war.

“It increasingly does look like the Israel military is proceeding without adequate care to spare civilians. And that kind of indiscriminate and disproportionate attack … is in itself a war crime.”