Smotrich said Monday that letting two million people in Gaza die from hunger is “justified and moral” but “nobody will let us cause two million civilians to die of hunger.”

The Palestinian ministry condemned the Israeli minister’s call as a “flagrant violation of the rules of international law and basic principles of humanity, a blatant challenge to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and a direct disregard for international legitimacy decisions and the international consensus on protecting civilians and securing their basic humanitarian needs.”

It called on the ICC to issue an arrest warrant for Smotrich for supporting the collective punishment of Palestinian civilians.