Former Israeli Defense Minister Raises Concerns of Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza
A former Israeli defense minister accused Israel of committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing in Gaza in multiple instances over the weekend, marking a rare criticism from a prominent figure within the country’s national security establishment.
Moshe Yaalon, who previously served as the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces and as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s defense minister from 2013-2016, first made the comments at a high-profile event on Saturday before then reiterating them in multiple interviews on Sunday.
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“The path they’re dragging us down is to occupy, annex, and ethnically cleanse,” Yaalon said Saturday, pointing to Israeli military operations in northern Gaza. When asked whether Israeli actions in the war were approaching ethnic cleansing, he responded, “Why on the way? What’s happening there? What’s happening there? There’s no Beit Lahia. There’s no Beit Hanoun. They’re now operating in Jabaliya. They’re basically cleaning the territory of Arabs.”
“At the end of the day, they’re perpetrating war crimes,” Yaalon doubled down in a separate radio interview Sunday, emphasizing that the government’s actions were exposing Israeli commanders to potential prosecution by the International Criminal Court, which recently issued warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes.
The Israeli military declined to comment on the accusations, while the prime minister’s office called them “absurd and false.” Meanwhile, Gallant, who was removed from the country’s top defense post last month, defended the military’s actions on social media, insisting they adhered to international law.
International aid groups and foreign leaders have repeatedly warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, which has seen tens of thousands killed and almost the entire population of the enclave displaced.
