Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday that allowing “minimal” aid into Gaza will ensure Israel has continued support from its “friends” to continue with its goal of “destroying” the Palestinian territory.
Smotrich’s comments came after more than 70 days of Israel’s total blockade on Gaza and a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would allow a “basic” amount of food to enter the territory, and the five aid trucks reportedly entered Gaza on Monday, the first trucks since March 2.
Smotrich said allowing a minuscule amount of aid to enter Gaza will allow “for our friends in the world to continue to provide us with an international umbrella of protection against the Security Council and The Hague Tribunal, and for us to continue to fight, God willing, until victory.”
Netanyahu made similar comments on Monday, saying that allowing “minimal” aid into Gaza was about maintaining support from the US. “Our best friends in the world – senators I know as strong supporters of Israel – have warned that they cannot support us if images of mass starvation emerge,” he said.
“We must avoid famine, both for practical reasons and diplomatic ones. Without international backing, we won’t be able to complete the mission of victory,” the prime minister added.
Last year, Smotrich said that it may be “moral and justified” for Israel to starve two million Palestinians to death in Gaza, but that the world wouldn’t let it happen.
Smotrich said on Monday that in the coming days, a small amount of supplies will be delivered to “bakeries that distribute pitas to people and public kitchens that provide a daily ration of cooked food. Civilians in Gaza will receive a pita and a plate of food, and that is it.”
Smotrich praised the Israeli military’s new offensive, dubbed Gideon’s Chariots, saying the IDF was now “destroying what is left of the Strip simply because everything there is one big city of terror.” He said once the civilian population is forced to move to southern Gaza, they will be expelled from Gaza “as part of President Trump’s plan.” Smotrich has been one of the leading proponents of the ethnic cleansing of Gaza within the Israeli government.
Netanyahu said that Israel was engaged in “intense, large-scale combat in Gaza” to take “control of the entire territory.”
Both Netanyahu and Smotrich said that aid wouldn’t reach Hamas. Israel is planning to establish a new aid mechanism that will involve private US contractors providing security for aid distribution points. The plan has been condemned by the UN and other aid agencies as insufficient and as a way to forcibly displace starving Palestinians by using aid as “bait.”
According to initial reports, Israel will allow the UN and international aid agencies to deliver aid trucks until the new mechanism is established. However, the number of trucks Israel is reportedly planning to allow in will not provide sufficient relief to the civilian population.
