Hamas: Zionists use starvation as weapon in Gaza to exterminate all Palestinians

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Bezalel Smotrich also proposed forced displacement as a solution to implement the annexation of Gaza.

He said the Zionist regime’s military should declare Gaza City and central refugee camps as combat zones, leaving only Hamas fighters inside “to die from hunger and thirst,” the daily Israel Hayom reported.

In response, Hamas said Smotrich’s statements represent a public call to continue Zionist regime’s crimes in Gaza until all the Palestinian people are exterminated or displaced.

The movement added that the minister’s remarks also prove that the regime is using starvation and siege as a weapon against innocent civilians, which is a war crime under international law.

Hamas stressed that what Smotrich said is not an isolated extremist opinion, but an official policy of the Zionist regime, which has been implemented in Gaza for nearly 23 months.

It said the remarks reveal the true nature of Zionist regime to the world and confirm that what is happening in Gaza is a project of genocide and mass displacement.

Fourteen of the 15 UN Security Council members -- four permanent ones, namely, Russia, China, the UK, and France, and the other 10 rotating -- called on the Israeli regime on Wednesday to end its genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has left hundreds of thousands of casualties since its launch in October 2023.

The US, among the permanent members of the UNSC, did not take part in the vote and obstructed the UN resolution.

The Zionist regime's brutal genocide against Gaza since October 2023 has martyred nearly 62,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

In Gaza City alone, more than half a million people are already facing a famine.