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Hamas demands legal action against Israel minister who pledge to destroy all of Gaza

May 20, 2025 at 1:13 pm

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich gives a speech in front of the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem on June 3, 2024 [Saeed Qaq/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images]

Hamas has called for legal action against Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who affirmed his government’s efforts to destroy the Gaza Strip and force its residents to leave.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Palestinian resistance movement said Smotrich’s “unequivocal admission” that Israel commits massacres against the Palestinians in Gaza in order to force them to leave is a “clear and new admission of Israel’s commission of the full-fledged crime of genocide.”

“This public statement must be subject to immediate legal accountability, and we refer it to international justice institutions, foremost among them the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court,” it added.

Hamas called for urgent legal action to document this new evidence of Israel’s commission of war crimes and to hold those responsible for these criminal policies to account to ensure they do not escape punishment.

Earlier, Smotrich said whatever remained in Gaza would be destroyed while only the bare minimum of food and medicine would be allowed into the besieged Strip.

Far-right Minister Smotrich said that Israel is “destroying everything that’s left of the Gaza Strip” and that “the army is leaving no stone unturned.” He declared: “We are conquering, cleansing, and remaining in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed.”