Ahmad 
Egypt has strongly condemned statements by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calling for the starvation of two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
A statement issued by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry described the statements as “shameful and unacceptable in form and substance,” stressing that “the lives and security of Palestinians in Gaza are the responsibility of the occupying state according to international law.”
Smotrich, the leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party, had previously stated that starving Gazans to death might be “just and moral” in an attempt to return Israeli prisoners held in the Strip.
His statements sparked widespread international condemnation, with the European Union considering that “deliberately starving civilians constitutes a war crime,” while France called on Netanyahu’s government to condemn the statements and describe them as “deeply unacceptable.”
In the same context, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry called on the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Smotrich, considering his statements an expression of “the ugliest forms of fascism.”
These developments come at a time when Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are suffering from severe shortages of food, water and medicine as a result of Israeli restrictions, leading to deaths from starvation.
According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, the death toll has risen to 39,699, while the number of injured has reached 91,722 since the beginning of the conflict on 7 October 2023.
These statements and developments underscore the urgent need for coordinated international efforts to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and ensure respect for legal and ethical standards in conflicts.
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