Ex-minister Yaalon accuses Israel of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Gaza

JERUSALEM: Israel's erstwhile defence curate Moshe Yaalon connected Saturday accused the Israeli service of “ethnic cleansing“ successful the Gaza Strip, sparking an outcry successful the country.

“The roadworthy we are being led down is conquest, annexation and taste cleansing,“ Yaalon said successful an interrogation connected the backstage DemocratTV channel.

Pressed connected the “ethnic cleansing“ appraisal, helium continued: “What is happening there? There is nary much Beit Lahia, nary much Beit Hanoun, the service intervenes successful Jabalia and successful world the onshore is being cleared of Arabs.”

The northbound of the Gaza Strip, which includes the areas Yaalon mentioned, has been the people of an Israeli violative since October 6 aimed astatine preventing the Palestinian militant radical Hamas from regrouping.

Yaalon, 74, was the caput of the Israeli service betwixt 2002 and 2005, conscionable earlier Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza.

He served arsenic defence curate and lawman premier earlier resigning successful 2016 implicit disagreements with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

There was contiguous choler successful Israel astatine his comments.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said it was a “shame” for Israel to “have had specified a fig arsenic service main and defence minister“.

Netanyahu's Likud party, to which Yaalon erstwhile belonged, slammed his “empty and dishonest remarks”, calling them “a acquisition to the ICC and to the campy of Israel's enemies”.

The connection was a notation to the International Criminal Court, which has issued an apprehension warrant for Netanyahu and his ex-defence curate Yoav Gallant connected suspicion of crimes against humanity and warfare crimes successful Gaza.

The warfare successful the Palestinian territory erupted aft Hamas's October 7, 2023 onslaught connected Israel, which resulted successful 1,207 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli authoritative figures.

Israel's retaliatory run has killed 44,382 radical successful Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's wellness ministry that the UN considers reliable.

Earlier this month, a UN peculiar committee pointed to “mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed connected Palestinians”.

Israel's prosecution of the warfare successful Gaza was “consistent with the characteristics of genocide”, the committee said, successful the archetypal usage of the connection by the UN successful the discourse of the existent warfare successful Gaza.

Israel has rejected the United Nations appraisal arsenic “anti-Israel fabrications”.