GAZA,(Palestine Foundation Information Center ) The Hamas Movement said that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s call to cut off water, electricity, and food supplies to the Gaza Strip constitutes an explicit admission of a policy of genocide and collective extermination in the territory.
Earlier on Thursday, Smotrich demanded a halt to water, electricity, and food access to Gaza in a new call inciting violence against its residents.
At a press conference, he said that “those who don’t die by gunfire will die of hunger,” and suggested that Gaza’s population problem would be solved if voluntary emigration was allowed.
He also insisted that no deals should be accepted as long as Hamas remains capable of resurfacing.
In its evening statement on Thursday, Hamas said these remarks represent a public call to continue the Israeli army’s crimes in Gaza until the annihilation and displacement of the Palestinian people.
It added that these comments are an official acknowledgment of using starvation and siege as weapons against innocent civilians, acts that constitute war crimes under the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute.
Hamas viewed Smotrich’s remarks as an explicit admission of a forced displacement and ethnic cleansing project against the Palestinian people and concrete evidence warranting condemnation of the Israeli occupation before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ), indicating a genocidal intent among the Israeli fascist leadership.
Hamas emphasized that what Smotrich said is not an isolated extremist opinion but a declared governmental policy in effect for nearly 23 months, through food and medicine blockade, targeting aid centers, infrastructure destruction, and forced relocation efforts.
The Movement concluded by affirming that these statements expose the true face of the Israeli occupation before the world and confirm that Gaza is not a military zone but a project of mass extermination and forced displacement, necessitating urgent international intervention and accountability for Israeli leaders.
