Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich<\/p>\n
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced today at a Yad Binyamin conference hosted by Israel Hayom<\/em> that blocking humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip might be \u201cjustified and moral,\u201d even if it results in the starvation of two million civilians.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are bringing in aid because there is no choice. We can\u2019t, 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. 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.\u201d he said.<\/p>\n According to the Times of Israel,<\/em> the far-right minister further claimed that Israel needs to regain complete control over what enters the Gaza Strip, claiming that Hamas diverting the aid is the \u201cmain factor\u201d prolonging the war.<\/p>\n It comes after the UN\u2019s World Food Program (WFP) warned last month that \u201calmost half a million people in Gaza face catastrophic levels of hunger.\u201d<\/p>\n Moreover, the UN\u2019s special rapporteur on Palestine last month questioned<\/a> how the world could remain \u201csilent\u201d or \u201cindifferent\u201d on the situation in Gaza, where Israeli attacks since 7 October 2023 have killed more than 39,600 Palestinians, and rendered most of the population homeless and hungry, Anadolu Agency<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n \u201cHow can we remain silent, indifferent, or inactive in the face of this abominable injustice, and not feel hypocritical when commemorating the victims of any other genocide?\u201d Francesca Albanese asked.<\/p>\n According to the latest UN-partnered IPC report on hunger levels, 96 per cent of the population of Gaza \u2013 some 2.15 million people \u2013 face acute food insecurity at \u201ccrisis\u201d level or higher.<\/p>\n Albanese\u2019s remarks were in response to a post by Michael Fakhri, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, who said \u201cFamine in Gaza has spread from the north to the entire Strip.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEvery Palestinian in Gaza is now facing famine because of Israel\u2019s intentional and targeted starvation campaign,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Smotrich added that while he supports Israel resettling Gaza, he hasn\u2019t demanded that this be defined as one of the war\u2019s goals. He argued that if Israel hadn\u2019t withdrawn from Gaza in 2005<\/a>, 7 October would never have happened.<\/p>\n