Bezalel Smotrich has complained that it’s impossible to wage war in today’s global reality
Starving the citizens of Gaza could be a “just” way of forcing Hamas to release hostages, but this would spark outrage from the global community, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has complained.
Israel controls the flow of humanitarian aid entering the besieged Palestinian enclave but its distribution is managed by aid groups within Gaza.
Speaking at a right-wing conference earlier this week, Smotrich said Israel was being forced to allow aid into the enclave “because there is no choice,” and because West Jerusalem needs “international legitimacy” to wage its war against Hamas.
He argued that Israel is unable to use humanitarian aid to pressure the Palestinian militant group because today’s global reality makes this “impossible.”
“No one in the world would let us starve and thirst two million citizens, even though it may be just and moral until [Hamas] return our hostages,” he said.
Smotrich suggested that, if the distribution of aid within Gaza was controlled by Israel, then the current war would have already ended and the hostages captured by the Palestinian fighters on October 7 would have been returned.
“You cannot fight Hamas with one hand and give them aid with the other,” Smotrich added, claiming that humanitarian aid is the Palestinian militia’s “money,” “fuel,” and its method of “civilian control” in Gaza.
