Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich has said letting two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip die of hunger might be “justified and moral”.
Speaking at a conference hosted by the Israel Hayom outlet on Monday, he expressed support for blocking aid to the Gaza Strip but said Israel lacked international legitimacy to do so.
“We are bringing in aid because there is no choice,” the far-right minister said, according to the Times of Israel.
“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 added.
He said that Israel needed “international legitimacy for this war”.
For nearly 10 months, the Israeli military has imposed a tight siege on the Gaza Strip, extremely limiting the flow of life-saving essential food and medical items.
Aid delivery is scarce, unprotected and restricted.
In June, independent UN investigators said Israel was using starvation on the Palestinian population as a weapon of war.
The hunger crisis has led to the death of dozens of people due to malnutrition, mostly children.
A high risk of famine persists across the Gaza Strip as almost the entire population faces high levels of acute food insecurity or worse, including half a million suffering starvation, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said in June.
Genocidal statements
Smotrich is one of many Israeli ministers and officials who have made statements described as genocidal against Gaza’s Palestinians since 7 October.
On 9 October, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was fighting “human animals” as he announced a “complete siege” on Gaza.
“There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed,” Gallant said.
Other ministers and officials have advocated using a nuclear bomb on Gaza, turning the enclave into a “slaughterhouse” and “erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth”.
South Africa said these statements are evidence of genocidal intent in its ongoing case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Israel denies the accusation of genocide.
Smotrich has also been accused of making genocidal statements about the occupied West Bank.
In March 2023, he said the Palestinian village of Huwwara near Nablus “needs to be wiped out”.