Israel committing war crimes in northern Gaza, says Israeli ex-defense minister

By Zein Khalil
JERUSALEM (AA) – Former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon accused the army on Sunday of committing war crimes in the northern Gaza Strip and attempting to hide these crimes from the public.

"I speak on behalf of the commanders who serve in northern Gaza. There are war crimes being committed there," Ya’alon told the Israeli public broadcaster KAN.

"IDF (army) soldiers are putting their lives at risk and will be subject to lawsuits in the International Criminal Court," he said.

"I have to warn about what is happening there (in northern Gaza) and what they are trying to hide from us, where they are committing war crimes."

On Saturday, the former defense minister accused Israel of carrying out “ethnic cleansing” in northern Gaza, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of leading the country to “ruin.”

"I take responsibility for what I said about ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza,” Ya’alon said.

He also criticized far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s call for the displacement of Gaza’s population.

"Smotrich is proud of the opportunity to reduce Gaza's population by half,” he said. "What do you call that? He has no moral issue with killing two million Gazans. We were once a democratic state."

Last month, Smotrich had called for the reoccupation of Gaza and suggested reducing its population by half through encouraging what he calls the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from the territory.

Several Israeli ministers have called for re-occupying Gaza and reducing its Palestinian population by encouraging what they term as voluntary migration amid Tel Aviv’s deadly onslaught on the enclave.

Since Oct. 5, Israel has launched a large-scale ground operation in northern Gaza to allegedly prevent Palestinian resistance group Hamas from regrouping. Palestinians, however, accuse Israel of seeking to occupy the area and forcibly displace its residents.

Since then, no humanitarian aid, including food, medicine, and fuel, was allowed into the area, leaving most of the population there on the verge of imminent famine.

More than 2,300 people have since been killed, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The onslaught was the latest episode in Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip that has killed nearly 44,400 people, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7, 2023.

On Nov. 21, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi