Palestinians Demand ICC Arrest Warrant for Smotrich Over Starvation Remarks

The Palestinian foreign ministry on Thursday called on the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich after he suggested this week that it might be "justified and moral" to cause two million Palestinian civilians to starve to death until Hamas returns Israeli hostages.

The ICC, based in The Hague, Netherlands, has already sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as for Hamas leaders.

The foreign ministry, a branch of the Palestinian Authority, which has partial control over the Israeli-occupied West Bank, condemned Smotrich's remarks, calling them an "explicit admission of adopting and bragging about the policy of genocide."

"The ministry further affirmed that such [a] statement is considered a direct disregard for international legitimacy decisions and international consensus on protecting civilians and securing their basic humanitarian needs," a ministry statement said, according to Al Jazeera.

The controversy arose because of comments Smotrich, a far-right politician, made about humanitarian aid at a conference on Monday.

"We bring in aid because there is no choice," he said. "We can't, 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."

Critics argued that Smotrich's remarks conveyed not only indifference to Palestinian suffering and death but also, more specifically, an attempt to justify Israel's documented practice of blocking or disrupting aid from reaching the Gaza Strip.

Human rights groups say that Israel has obstructed aid during its 10-month siege of the enclave, which has killed many tens of thousands of Palestinians and displaced the vast majority of the population. Some groups have accused Israel of using starvation as a "weapon of war," which is a war crime.

United Nations' experts warned earlier this month that Gazans faced famine due to an "intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people," calling the obstruction of aid "a form of genocidal violence."

In his Monday remarks, Smotrich went on to imply that Israel only allows in aid at all as a matter of public relations.

"We live today in a certain reality, we need international legitimacy for this war," he said.

Smotrich's remarks provoked widespread international condemnation.

Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Friday that U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk was "shocked and appalled" by Smotrich's comments, warning that such remarks could incite war crimes and hatred toward innocent civilians. Laurence also suggested that public statements such as Smotrich's could themselves be criminal and should be investigated and prosecuted if appropriate.

Officials from the European Union, France, Germany, Egypt, and the United Kingdom each issued strongly critical statements about Smotrich's remarks, characterizing them as, for example, "appalling" and "beyond ignominious," and calling for Israel to respect international law regarding humanitarian aid.

Even Israel's strongest diplomatic ally and main weapons supplier, the United States, apparently could not abide Smotrich's remarks.

"We are appalled by these comments and reiterate that this rhetoric is harmful and disturbing," a U.S. State Department spokesperson told The Times of Israel.