Photo: The consequences of the Israeli massacre in Beit Lahia on the night of Tuesday October 29 © Quds News Network
Former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon accused Israel of committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, echoing International Criminal Court allegations against the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant.
Mr Yaalon, a former army chief of staff, told Israeli media that hardliners in Mr Netanyahu's far-right cabinet were seeking to drive Palestinians out of the northern Gaza Strip and wanted to re-establish Jewish colonies there.
“I am obliged to warn about what is happening there that is hidden from us,” Mr Yaalon told public broadcaster Kan on Sunday.
“At the end of the day, war crimes are committed. »
In an interview with the private channel DemocratTV, Mr. Yaalon said: “The path we are being led on is one of conquest, annexation and ethnic cleansing.”
Asked about the assessment of “ethnic cleansing,” he said: “What is going on there? There is no more Beit Lahiya, no more Beit Hanoon, the army intervenes in Jabalia and in reality, the land is emptied of its Arabs.”
Mr Yaalon served as Mr Netanyahu's defense minister from 2013 to 2016 and has always been a staunch critic of the prime minister.
Mr Netanyahu's Likud party accused him of spreading “slanderous lies”, while Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, the leader of a small right-wing party, said his accusations were baseless.
Last month, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the Gaza conflict.
“Immediate and permanent” ceasefire
Palestinians have long accused Israel of carrying out ethnic cleansing in Gaza during the ongoing conflict.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Palestinian-American historian Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Distinguished Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, said that the “genocide” taking place in Gaza since October 2023 is “ worse than any phase of Palestinian history.”
In recent weeks, the Israeli military has intensified its attacks on the northern Gaza Strip, saying it is targeting Hamas fighters who have regrouped, forcing civilians to flee the area. UN agencies say Palestinians are suffering from more than a month of military siege in the north.
Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf visited the Gaza border on Thursday and supported an initiative to restore settlements in the enclave.
“Jewish colonization here is the response to the terrible massacre [du 7 octobre 2023] and the response to the International Criminal Court in The Hague,” Goldknopf was quoted as saying by Israeli media.
Most world powers consider settlements built on territory Israel seized in the 1967 war to be illegal and see their expansion as an obstacle to peace because they eat away at the land Palestinians want for a future. State.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) leaders on Sunday reiterated their calls for an “immediate and permanent” ceasefire in Gaza during their meeting in Kuwait.
The leaders “condemned in the strongest possible terms the shocking and horrific crimes committed by the Israeli occupying forces in the Gaza Strip as part of a program of genocide and ethnic cleansing” against the Palestinians.
They also welcomed the ICC's arrest warrants for Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant.
As negotiations continue for an elusive ceasefire, Israeli forces struck Beit Lahyia on Monday, killing at least ten more Palestinians.
The Israeli genocide in Gaza has killed at least 44,429 Palestinians and injured 105,250 since October 7, 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during attacks carried out by Hamas that day, and more than 200 were taken prisoner.
Translation: AFPS
