Palestine Demands ICC Arrest Warrant for Israel’s Smotrich over Call to Starve Gazans

Gaza, MINA – Palestine demanded an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday for Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for his call to starve two million people in the Gaza Strip to death.

“This is an explicit admission of adoption and bragging about the policy of genocide,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, as reported by Anadolu Agency.

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

The ministry condemned the Israeli minister’s call as a “flagrant violation of the rules of international law and basic principles of humanity, a blatant challenge to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and a direct disregard for international legitimacy decisions and the international consensus on protecting civilians and securing their basic humanitarian needs.”

It called on the ICC to issue an arrest warrant for Smotrich for supporting the collective punishment of Palestinian civilians.

Last February, Amnesty International said that Israel was defying an ICJ ruling to prevent genocide by failing to allow adequate humanitarian aid to reach Gaza. (T/RE1/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)