US ‘appalled’ by Smotrich’s suggestion that starvation of Gazans could be justified
EU and Britain urge Israeli government to condemn the far-right minister’s remarks, while France expresses ‘deep dismay’
The Biden administration on Wednesday led international condemnations of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s comments this week suggesting that starving the entire population of Gaza could be justified in order to secure the release of the Israeli hostages.
“We are appalled by these comments and reiterate that this rhetoric is harmful and disturbing,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement to The Times of Israel.
US President Joe Biden and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken have repeatedly stressed “the need to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, remove any obstacles to the flow of aid and restore basic services for those in need,” the statement added.
Speaking at a conference on Monday, Smotrich said, “We bring in aid because there is no choice.”
“We can’t, in the current global reality, manage a war. Nobody will let us cause two million civilians to die of hunger, even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned,” he continued. “Humanitarianism in exchange for humanitarianism is morally justified — but what can we do? We live today in a certain reality, we need international legitimacy for this war.”
The European Union, France and the United Kingdom also condemned the far-right minister’s comments, with the EU saying the deliberate starvation of civilians was a “war crime.”
“It demonstrates, once again, his contempt for international law and for basic principles of humanity,” the bloc said in a statement.
“We expect the Israeli government to unequivocally distance itself from the words of Minister Smotrich,” the EU said, as it called for access to cover the humanitarian needs of Gazans, including hundreds of thousands of children.
The EU reiterated its call for an “immediate ceasefire” to secure the release of all hostages held by terrorists in the Gaza Strip and also to increase the distribution of aid across the enclave.
France also criticized Smotrich, expressing its “deep dismay at the scandalous remarks.”
Providing humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza is an “obligation under international humanitarian law” for Israel as it controls all access to the territory, it added.
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy said on X that there “can be no justification for Minister Smotrich’s remarks,” and called on “the wider Israeli government to retract and condemn them.”
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, announced in May that he was seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for, among other charges, “causing starvation as a method of war including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies.”
After the war began with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, the government announced a blockade on the Gaza Strip in which no humanitarian aid would be allowed. However, by the end of October, Israel had agreed to resume entry of aid at Joe Biden’s urging.
Over the past 10 months of war, Israel has repeatedly been accused of not allowing enough aid into the Strip. A number of solutions were attempted, including airdropping aid packages into Gaza or delivering aid by sea via a temporary US-built pier, but ultimately, truckloads of supplies entering via ground crossings were found to be the best method.
Israel, meanwhile, has been highlighting its efforts to expand humanitarian aid to Gaza and blaming the humanitarian crisis on aid agencies failing to properly distribute supplies and on looting of aid trucks by terror groups and gangs.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
