Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has condemned a statement made by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on forced displacement of Palestinians, terming it as a ‘war crime’.
The senior far-right member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, on Tuesday, said that Gaza could not survive as an independent entity and it would be better for Palestinians there to leave for other countries.
Smotrich, who heads one of the religious nationalist parties in Netanyahu's coalition, said he supported a call by two members of the Israeli parliament, who wrote in a Wall Street Journal editorial that Western countries should accept Gazan families who expressed a desire to relocate.
Mr Shoukry said the statement “is an expression of the Israeli government's policy that violates international laws.”
“Any attempt to justify and encourage the displacement of Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip is completely rejected by Egypt and internationally,” he added.
Mr Shoukry said the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza “is the result of the deliberate military targeting of civilians and the intentional siege and starvation operations, aimed at creating conditions that lead citizens to leave their homes and areas of residence, in a full-fledged war crime.”
“Egypt categorically rejects the policies of forced displacement of Palestinians, or deliberately withholding humanitarian aid and necessary services in a way that creates unbearable conditions for civilians, or allowing the liquidation of the Palestinian cause,” he stressed.
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