Ahmad 
The European Union, France and Britain have condemned the statements made by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich during a seminar on the future of the Gaza Strip.
The statements came in the context of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas for ten months, where Smotrich stated that “letting the people of the Gaza Strip die of hunger” might be “morally justified” in order to release prisoners held in the Strip.
The European Union described Smotrich’s statements as “absolutely shameful,” noting that “starving civilians to death cannot be justified.”
The union stressed in its statement that it expects the Israeli government to clearly distance itself from these statements.
For its part, France expressed its “deep dismay” at the statements, which it considered “scandalous,” calling on the Israeli government to strongly condemn them.
In London, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that the United Kingdom considers “Minister Smotrich’s comments completely unacceptable,” demanding that the Israeli government apologize and retract his statements, warning that deliberately starving civilians is a “war crime.”
This escalation comes after the unprecedented attack launched by Hamas on Israel on October 7.
In contrast, the Israeli campaign on the Gaza Strip resulted in the deaths of at least 39,677 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Ministry of Health in the Strip.
A campaign in Mauritania to collect donations for the people of Gaza