ISTANBUL

Egypt on Thursday condemned Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's call to starve Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to death, calling it “disgraceful and unacceptable in both form and content.” 

“Egypt condemns Smotrich's remarks, which claimed there is a moral justification for starving Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry emphasized that “the lives and security of Palestinians in Gaza are the responsibility of the occupying state (Israel) under international law."

It described the Israeli finance minister's comments as “disgraceful and unacceptable in both form and content.”

Smotrich said Monday that letting two million people in Gaza die from hunger might be “justified and moral.”

Last February, Amnesty International said Israel was defying an ICJ ruling to prevent genocide by failing to allow adequate humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.

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.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the ICJ, which ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.  

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala in Istanbul