Bezalel Smotrich told a conference this week that Israel was being forced by international opinion to allow food and medicine into Gaza for civilians.
“We bring in aid because there is no choice. Nobody will let us cause 2mn civilians to die of hunger, even though it might be justified and moral, until our hostages are returned,” said the crucial ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a leader of the Jewish supremacist Religious Zionism party.
“What can we do?” he added. “We live today in a certain reality, we need international legitimacy for this war.”
Germany’s ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, called the comments “appalling”, the French foreign ministry described them as “disgraceful”, and the EU called his comments “beyond ignominious”.
“Deliberate starvation of civilians is a war crime,” the EU said. “Minister Smotrich saying that ‘it might be justified and moral’ to let Israel ‘cause 2mn civilians to die of hunger’ until the ‘hostages are returned’ is beyond ignominious.”
UK foreign secretary David Lammy said: “International law could not be more clear — the deliberate starvation of civilians is a war crime. There can be no justification for Minister Smotrich’s remarks and we expect the wider Israeli government to retract and condemn them.”
Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s foreign minister, called the move “an extreme action” and added that it would be “consequential for our relationship with the Netanyahu government”.
Smotrich’s comments come as Israel’s allies, including the US, struggle to convince Netanyahu to increase the stuttering pipeline of aid into Gaza since the October 7 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas triggered Israel’s retaliatory offensive in the strip.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for saying it may be “justified and moral” to starve Palestinians in Gaza.
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry described Smotrich’s comments as an “explicit admission of adopting and bragging about the policy of genocide”.
“The Ministry further affirmed that such [a] statement is considered a direct disregard for international legitimacy decisions and international consensus on protecting civilians and securing their basic humanitarian needs,” the statement said.
“It called on the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant against Smotrich for approving and supporting the policy of genocide.”
The ministry also urged countries around the world to condemn Smotrich and ban him from entering their territory.
Smotrich had said earlier this week that Israel has “no choice” but to allow aid into Gaza in order to maintain what he called “international legitimacy” for the war.
“We can’t, in the current global reality, manage a war. No one in the world will allow us to starve two million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages,” he said.
