Israel only allowing aid into enclave ‘because there is no choice’: Bezalel Smotrich Finance minister supports full Israeli settlement of Gaza LONDON: Starving 2 million civilians to death in Gaza “might be justified and moral” until hostages are returned, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said. Israel is only allowing aid to enter Gaza “because there is no choice,” Smotrich said, the Times of Israel reported. He was speaking at a conference hosted by Israel Hayom, the country’s most widely distributed newspaper. “We can’t, in the current global reality, manage a war. Nobody will let us cause 2 million civilians to die of hunger even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned,” he said. “Humanitarian in exchange for humanitarian is morally justified, but what can we do? We live today in a certain reality, we need international legitimacy for this war.” Hamas’ siphoning of aid entering Gaza is the “main factor” prolonging the war, Smotrich claimed. Though he supports full Israeli settlement of the enclave, he said this goal is absent from the country’s war plans. In his comments at the Israel Hayom conference, Smotrich claimed that his country’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza led to last year’s Oct. 7 Hamas attack.