Smotrich, who once called starvation 'moral,' backs funding Gaza aid

In a dramatic reversal, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Wednesday that he would back a move to direct millions of shekels from Israel's coffers to providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, despite his previous positions, which included making comments such as starving millions in the Palestinian territory would be "justified and moral."

Speaking to the Israeli Kan public broadcaster, Smotrich claimed such funding is “not money for humanitarian aid, it’s money to win the war. Had we controlled the humanitarian aid to Gaza we would have won the war a while ago.”

The finance minister said he believed it would be preferable to pull the troops from an Israeli army division from fighting “and put that money toward supporting the American companies who are managing the humanitarian aid," referring to the highly criticized Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed U.S.-run company that has been distributing aid in Gaza since May, and whose centers have been the site of hundreds of Palestinian aid seeker's deaths by live fire.

On Monday, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump discussed plans for Washington to significantly increase its role Gaza aid distribution, Axios reported, citing Israeli and U.S. officials, one of whom said the Trump administration will "take over" aid management, due to Israel's inadequacy.

Smotrich, who has previously threatened to quit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition over an Israeli decision to lift a famine-inducing blockade on aid entering the Strip, said the money spent on the American aid effort would be "inseparable from the war effect,” according to the comments cited by Times of Israel.

In a video posted Wednesday evening on his X account, Smotrich addressed the topic again, saying, "Hamas can't be defeated with tanks alone."

Smotrich argued that Hamas must be strangled economically, and that he wants to include a dedicated budget in case Israel needs to "fund aid for the population instead of continuing to send trucks to Hamas."

"A clear decision will be made to conquer all of Gaza," he said, but noted that the war has already cost 300 billion shekels, the equivalent of $87.5 billion, and that "without civil and economic strangulation, there is no chance in the world of winning."