Palestinian National Council Chairman Ruhi Fattouh has condemned the Israeli finance minister’s proposal to blockade Gaza and seize it in stages, calling it an “open confession of genocide and war crimes.”

In a statement Thursday, Fattouh said such “provocative rhetoric” was no longer limited to extremist views but was now being implemented as state policy. He pointed to two years of siege, during which aid centers were attacked, infrastructure destroyed, and forced displacement attempted.

Fattouh also denounced violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank and urged the international community, the UN, and the Security Council to uphold their legal and political responsibilities.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared Gaza City and refugee camps as “battle zones,” vowing to starve Hamas members “to death by hunger and thirst.”