Ex-minister Yaalon accuses Israel of 'ethnic cleansing' in Gaza

Israel's former defence minister Moshe Yaalon on Saturday accused the Israeli army of "ethnic cleansing" in the Gaza Strip, sparking an outcry in the country.

"The road we are being led down is conquest, annexation and ethnic cleansing," Yaalon said in an interview on the private DemocratTV channel.

Pressed on the "ethnic cleansing" appraisal, he continued: "What is happening there? There is no more Beit Lahia, no more Beit Hanoun, the army intervenes in Jabalia and in reality the land is being cleared of Arabs."

The north of the Gaza Strip, which includes the areas Yaalon mentioned, has been the target of an Israeli offensive since October 6 aimed at preventing the Palestinian militant group Hamas from regrouping.

Yaalon, 74, was the head of the Israeli army between 2002 and 2005, just before Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza.

He served as defence minister and deputy premier before resigning in 2016 over disagreements with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

There was immediate anger in Israel at his comments.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said it was a "shame" for Israel to "have had such a figure as army chief and defence minister".

Netanyahu's Likud party, to which Yaalon once belonged, slammed his "empty and dishonest remarks", calling them "a gift to the ICC and to the camp of Israel's enemies".

The statement was a reference to the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his ex-defence minister Yoav Gallant on suspicion of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.

The war in the Palestinian territory erupted after Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in 1,207 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed 44,382 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

Earlier this month, a UN special committee pointed to "mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians".

Israel's prosecution of the war in Gaza was "consistent with the characteristics of genocide", the committee said, in the first use of the word by the UN in the context of the current war in Gaza.

Israel has rejected the United Nations assessment as "anti-Israel fabrications".