Australian ministers say Palestinians are being ‘collectively punished’ for Hamas barbarism

Ed Husic backed by fellow Labor frontbencher Anne Aly who says Israel ‘could be investigated’ for alleged war crimes

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Palestinians are being “collectively punished for Hamas’s barbarism”, senior federal minister Ed Husic has said, in the strongest condemnation yet of Israel’s reprisals in Gaza by a member of the Australian government.

Fellow Labor frontbencher Anne Aly immediately backed Husic saying it was “difficult to argue” that Palestinians, including 1,000 children who had been killed, were not being “collectively punished”. Aly, the early childhood education minister, suggested Israel could be investigated over whether it had committed war crimes.