Israel 'sending soldiers to commit war crimes in Gaza', says former army chief

The Israeli military’s former chief of staff has accused his successor of “sending soldiers to commit war crimes” in Gaza and torn into Israel’s government for “losing touch with Jewish morality”.

In an interview with Israeli outlet Ynet on Thursday, Moshe Yaalon, who also served as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s defence minister between 2013 and 2016, said Israel had abandoned the captives held by Hamas and was carrying out a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza. 

Yaalon attacked the current military chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, saying he was not stopping “clearly illegal orders” and was ordering “his soldiers to be war criminals”.

“Call it ethnic cleansing, call it transfer, call it deportation - it’s a war crime,” Yaalon said, describing plans led by far-right Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir to occupy the entire Gaza Strip and evacuate its Palestinian population.

“Smotrich and Ben Gvir do not want to replace Hamas; they want Israeli military rule and Israeli civilian administration. Let them say it very clearly: they are going to occupy Gaza and settle it with Jews after it has been ethnically cleansed. Let them say it,” said Yaalon, who fought in the 1973 Middle East war and the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

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