Allowing two million Gazans to starve ‘may be moral’ – Israeli minister

Bezalel Smotrich has complained that it’s impossible to wage war in today’s global reality

Starving the citizens of Gaza could be a “just” way of forcing Hamas to release hostages, but this would spark outrage from the global community, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has complained.

Israel controls the flow of humanitarian aid entering the besieged Palestinian enclave but its distribution is managed by aid groups within Gaza.

Speaking at a right-wing conference earlier this week, Smotrich said Israel was being forced to allow aid into the enclave “because there is no choice,” and because West Jerusalem needs “international legitimacy” to wage its war against Hamas.

He argued that Israel is unable to use humanitarian aid to pressure the Palestinian militant group because today’s global reality makes this “impossible.”

“No one in the world would let us starve and thirst two million citizens, even though it may be just and moral until [Hamas] return our hostages,” he said.

Smotrich suggested that, if the distribution of aid within Gaza was controlled by Israel, then the current war would have already ended and the hostages captured by the Palestinian fighters on October 7 would have been returned.

“You cannot fight Hamas with one hand and give them aid with the other,” Smotrich added, claiming that humanitarian aid is the Palestinian militia’s “money,” “fuel,” and its method of “civilian control” in Gaza.

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The minister’s comments have been met with widespread outrage, including in the West. The EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell has called on West Jerusalem to distance itself from the remarks, arguing that starving civilians constituted a “war crime,” and that advocating for this was “beyond ignominious.”

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has also called on the “wider Israeli government to retract and condemn” Smotrich’s comments, insisting that “there can be no justification” for his remarks.

Germany’s ambassador to Israel, Steffen Siebert, also called the finance minister’s statements “unacceptable and appalling,” and said it was a “principle of international law and of humanity to protect civilians in a war.”

Meanwhile, the issue of humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza has continued to raise concerns from the international community, with human rights organizations warning that the enclave remains at high risk of famine. 

The International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan has blamed Israel for the crisis and has sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for using “starvation as a method of war,” among other crimes.

Israel, however, has denied accusations of restricting aid deliveries to the Palestinians, instead suggesting that Hamas was stealing the resources.