Former Israeli defense minister Yaalon warns of ethnic cleansing in Gaza

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Former ******** defense minister Yaalon warns of ******* cleansing in Gaza

By Crispian Balmer

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A former ******** defense minister has accused ******* of committing war ******* and ******* cleansing in the Gaza Strip, drawing a sharp rebuke from government ranks.

Moshe Yaalon, a hawkish former general, told ******** media that hardliners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet were looking to chase Palestinians from northern Gaza and wanted to re-establish ******* settlements there.

Trusted news and daily delights, right in your inbox

See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories.

“I am compelled to warn about what is happening there and is being concealed from us,” Yaalon told *******’s public broadcaster Kan on Sunday. “At the end of the day, war ******* are being committed.”

Yaalon is a former army chief of staff who served as defence minister under Netanyahu from 2013-16, and has been a fierce critic of the prime minister ever since.

Netanyahu’s Likud party accused him of spreading “slanderous *****”, while Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, head of a small rightist party, said his accusations were baseless.

“Everything ******* does is in accordance with international law and it is a pity that former minister Ya’alon does not realise the damage that he has done and retract his remarks,” he told a conference hosted by ******* Today newspaper.

The International ********* Court (ICC) last month issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defence chief Yoav Gallant for alleged war ******* and ******* against humanity in the Gaza conflict.

Netanyahu and Gallant both rejected the charges, but in a separate interview with Democrat TV on Saturday, Yaalon warned that the nation was at a crossroads with the government looking “to conquer, to annex, to carry out ******* cleansing”.

SURPRISE *******

Palestinians have long accused ******* of looking to chase them out of swathes of Gaza during the ongoing conflict.

******* has been at war in Gaza since October 2023, after ****** militants launched a surprise ******* in which they ******* about 1,200 people and abducted more than 250 hostages. *******’s military campaign in Gaza has ******* more than 44,400 people and displaced nearly all of the enclave’s population.

In recent weeks, the Israelis have focused much of their firepower back on northern Gaza, saying they are targeting ****** fighters who have regrouped, and urging civilians to leave the area until further notice.

“What is going on there? There is no Beit Lahiya, no Beit Hanoun, they are operating now in Jabaliya and basically cleaning the area of ******,” Yaalon told Democrat TV, referring to ************ neighbourhoods north of Gaza City.

He added that hardliners wanted to establish ******* settlement there, 19 years after ******* withdrew from the territory – a disengagement Yaalon had opposed at the time.

Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf visited the Gaza border last Thursday and backed an initiative to re-establish settlements in the enclave.

“******* settlement here is the answer to the terrible (Oct. 7, 2023) massacre and the answer to the International ********* Court in the Hague,” Goldknopf was quoted as saying in ******** media.

Most world powers deem settlements built in territory ******* seized in the 1967 war as ******** and see their expansion as an obstacle to peace, since they eat away at land the Palestinians want for a future state.

(Writing by Crispian Balmer; Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by David Holmes)

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#******** #defense #minister #Yaalon #warns #******* #cleansing #Gaza

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up