By Oliver Towfigh Nia
BERLIN (AA) - Germany on Wednesday strongly condemned Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for calling the starvation of civilians in Gaza "justified."
“These are completely unacceptable and outrageous statements from the Israeli finance minister. We reject them in the strongest possible terms,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer said at a press conference in Berlin.
He stressed his country’s commitment “to alleviate the suffering of the people in Gaza”, adding he “expected the Israeli government to do the same.”
“This is a requirement of humanity and a basic principle of international humanitarian law that civilians are protected even in war and, for example, have to have access to water and food, which makes the statements of the Israeli finance minister all the more outrageous,” Fischer said.
Smotrich said Monday that the death of two million Palestinians in the blockaded Gaza Strip from hunger might be “justified and moral.”
“We can’t, in the current global reality, manage a war. Nobody will let us cause 2 million civilians to die of hunger even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned,” Smotrich told a conference hosted by Israel Hayom daily.
“Humanitarian in exchange for humanitarian is morally justified, but what can we do? We live today in a certain reality, we need international legitimacy for this war,” he added.
Asked by a journalist whether Smotrich’s remarks would in fact constitute a “genocidal intent,” Fischer replied: “I am sure that the statement will also be followed very closely in The Hague, where these types of questions are being discussed.”
Israel is defying the ICJ ruling to prevent genocide by failing to allow adequate humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, according to Amnesty International.
Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack, leaving the territory’s entire population on the verge of famine.
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 91,600 injured, according to local health authorities.
Over 10 months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.