Ex-Israeli Defense Chief: We’re Committing War Crimes

NBC News reports:

A former Israeli defense minister has accused his country of committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, in a rare criticism from Israel’s own security community about military operations in the Palestinian enclave. Moshe Yaalon said the Israeli government was putting the lives of Israel Defense Forces soldiers in danger and exposing them to lawsuits at the International Criminal Court, in an interview with the Reshet Bet radio station Sunday.

“I speak on behalf of commanders who serve in northern Gaza,” he said. “War crimes are being committed here.” In a separate interview with Democrat TV on Saturday, he said that the Israeli government was seeking “to conquer, to annex, to carry out ethnic cleansing.” Netanyahu’s allies were quick to condemn Yaalon’s remarks. Netanyahu’s Likud party, of which Yaalon is a former member, said Yaalon was spreading “slanderous lies.”

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Yaalon quit Netanyahu’s administration in 2016.