JERUSALEM – A former Israeli defense minister has accused Israel of committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, drawing sharp rebukes from government ranks.

Mr. Moshe Yaalon, a hawkish former general, told Israeli media that hardliners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet sought to drive Palestinians out of northern Gaza and wanted to reestablish Jewish settlements there.

“I am obliged to warn about what is happening there and which is hidden from us,” Mr. Yaalon told Israeli public broadcaster Kan on December 1. “At the end of the day, war crimes are committed.”

Mr. Yaalon is a former army chief of staff who served as defense minister under Mr. Netanyahu from 2013 to 2016, and has been a fierce critic of the prime minister since then.

Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party accused him of spreading “slanderous lies”, while Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, leader of a small right-wing party, said his accusations were baseless.

“Everything Israel does is in accordance with international law and it is a shame that former Minister Ya’alon does not realize the damage he has caused and retracts his remarks,” he said at a conference organized by Israel Today newspaper.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants in November for Mr Netanyahu and his former defense chief Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.

Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant have both rejected the accusations, but in a separate interview with Democrat TV on December 1, Mr. Yaalon warned that the nation was at a crossroads with the government seeking to “conquer, annex, carry out ethnic cleansing.

Surprise attack

Palestinians have long accused Israel of seeking to drive them out of swaths of Gaza during the ongoing conflict.

Israel has been at war in Gaza since October 2023, after Hamas militants launched surprise attack during which they killed around 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 250 hostages. The Israeli military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 44,400 people and displaced almost the entire population of the enclave.

In recent weeks, the Israelis have focused much of their firepower on northern Gaza, saying they are targeting Hamas fighters who have regrouped and urging civilians to leave the area until further notice.

“What is happening there? There is no Beit Lahiya, no Beit Hanoun, they are now operating in Jabaliya and are basically clearing the area of ​​Arabs,” Mr. Yaalon told Democratic TV , referring to the Palestinian neighborhoods north of Gaza City.

He added that hardliners wanted to establish a Jewish settlement there, 19 years after Israel withdrew from the territory – a disengagement Mr. Ya’alon opposed at the time.

Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf visited the Gaza border on November 28 and supported an initiative to reestablish settlements in the enclave.

“Jewish settlement here is the response to the terrible massacre (of October 7, 2023) and the response to the International Criminal Court in The Hague,” Goldknopf said in Israeli media.

Most world powers consider settlements built on territory captured by Israel in the 1967 war illegal and view their expansion as an obstacle to peace, as it eats away at the land Palestinians want for their future state. . REUTERS