A former Israeli defense minister has accused Israel of committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, a rare critique from a member of the security establishment at a time of war.
The comments by Moshe Yaalon came amid mounting criticism of the Israeli military’s conduct in Gaza. They were swiftly denied and condemned by allies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying they would hurt the country and help its enemies.
Yaalon served as the Israeli military’s chief of staff during the second intifada and as Netanyahu’s defense minister during the 2014 war in Gaza, the longest conflict between Israel and Hamas before the current war. But he broke with Netanyahu in 2016 and has since become a critic of the leader.
At an event Saturday, Yaalon denounced Netanyahu’s government for its actions in Gaza.
“The path they’re dragging us down is to occupy, annex and ethnically cleanse — look at the northern strip,” he said. He also said Israel was being pulled in the direction of building settlements in Gaza, a notion supported by far-right politicians in Netanyahu’s government.
When the interviewer at the event asked Yaalon to clarify whether he thought Israel was on the way to carrying out 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 Jabalia. They’re basically cleaning the territory of Arabs,” he said, referring to towns and cities in northern Gaza where a renewed Israeli offensive against the militant group Hamas has caused extensive damage in recent months. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began in response to the deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023.
Yaalon doubled down on his accusations Sunday, saying that Netanyahu’s government was exposing Israeli commanders to lawsuits at the International Criminal Court and was putting their lives at risk.
“I’m speaking in the name of IDF commanders who are operating in the northern strip,” Yaalon told the Reshet Bet radio station, referring to the Israel Defense Forces. “They reached out to me expressing fear about what’s happening there.”
He later said, in an apparent reference to the government: “At the end of the day, they’re perpetrating war crimes” — while making clear his issue was not with the soldiers themselves.
The Israeli military declined to comment on Yaalon’s accusations.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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