Switzerland condemns Israeli minister’s starvation remarks

Switzerland followed the EU, France and the UK in condemning recent remarks by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said starving the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip “might be justified and moral”. + Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox “Starving civilians deliberately is a war crime. The latest remarks of Minister Smotrich are unacceptable. We expect the Israeli government to comply with IHL [international humanitarian law]”, the Swiss foreign ministry wrote on social media platform X on Thursday. Addressing a conference on the future of the Gaza Strip, the far-right Israeli minister said on Monday that “no one in the world will allow us to starve two million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the [Israeli] hostages” who have been held there since the Hamas attacks last October 7. We are “bringing in humanitarian aid because we have no choice. We are in a situation that requires international legitimacy to conduct ...