Gallant pans ex-defense chief Ya’alon, who doubles down on Gaza ‘ethnic cleansing’ charge

Former defense minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday accused Moshe Ya’alon, also a past defense chief, of helping the enemy by publicly declaring that Israel is on its way to committing ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip and is already cleansing parts of Gaza of Arabs.

The two men, who have both served under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke to the Kan public broadcaster a day after Ya’alon made his remarks in a television interview.

Gallant told Kan that Ya’alon is “helping our enemies to harm the country.”

He demanded that Ya’alon apologize for his remarks and insisted that Israel Defense Forces soldiers uphold the highest standards possible in the “complex and difficult war that was forced upon us.”

Netanyahu fired Gallant early last month, just over a year into the Gaza war, which began on October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led a devastating cross-border attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people.

Ya’alon is a right-wing politician who was a Likud member for years and defense minister under Netanyahu from 2013 to 2016, but in recent years has become a harsh critic of Netanyahu and his policies.

On Saturday, Ya’alon said during an interview on Democrat TV that “the path we are being dragged down is one of occupation, annexation, and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip” and that Israel was already cleansing parts of Gaza of Arabs.

In a Kan radio interview on Sunday, asked about his allegation of ethnic cleansing, Ya’alon said he “stands behind the expression” and added, “My issue is not with the soldiers of the IDF. On the contrary: I’m speaking on behalf of commanders who are active in northern Gaza and turned to me because they are troubled by what is happening there. Their lives are being placed in mortal danger; they are being faced with moral dilemmas… and ultimately, they will be vulnerable to legal complaints at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.”

He said he had to speak out because of what was happening in Gaza. “War crimes are being committed there.”

He also said he was just “holding up a mirror” to calls from some political leaders to “thin out” the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip and restore Israeli settlements there, mentioning in particular remarks from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

The far-right Smotrich, he charged, “has no moral qualms about starving two million Gazans to death.”

Last month the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, alleging the war crimes of targeting civilians in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war, accusations that Israel adamantly denies.

‘There must be no confusion’

In his Saturday interview with Democrat TV, Ya’alon had said that Israel’s leadership, driven by far-right elements who seek to resettle Gaza, was taking the country down a path of ethnic cleansing in the Strip, and warned that Netanyahu’s government was leading the nation to “destruction.”

“Transfer… and Jewish settlements,” he said, referring to the idea pushed by the far-right for population transfer and “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from Gaza, and the reestablishment of Israeli settlements in their place. Netanyahu has repeatedly said such actions are not the goal of the war, nor are they on the agenda. However, on Sunday, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir asserted that Netanyahu has begun to “show a certain openness” to the idea.

“Now look at the polls. Seventy percent — sometimes more and sometimes a little less — of the public in the State of Israel advocates a path that is Jewish, democratic, liberal etc., with separation [from the Palestinians],” Ya’alon said.

“Therefore, there must be no confusion here. He who wants to confuse us is the one who is currently leading us to destruction, no less,” he said.

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Journalist Lucy Aharish noted that Ya’alon’s use of the term “ethnic cleansing” was something she never thought she’d hear from him.

“Ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, is that what you think? That we are on the way to that?” she asked.

“Why ‘On the way?'” Ya’alon answered. “There is no Beit Lahiya, there is no Beit Hanoun, [the military] is currently operating in Jabalia and is essentially cleansing the area of ​​Arabs.”

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar also criticized Ya’alon’s remarks, writing on X: “The irresponsible comments of former minister Moshe Ya’alon are incorrect and slander Israel without a basis. I call on him to retract his comments.”

Following the interview, Netanyahu’s Likud party responded in a statement that Ya’alon “long ago lost direction and his [moral] compass, and his defamatory remarks and lies are a prize for the International Criminal Court and the Israel-hating camp.”

In October, Israel ordered the entire remaining population of the northern third of Gaza, estimated at around 400,000 people, to evacuate to the south, and allegedly blocked humanitarian aid for weeks before allowing it back in, under pressure from the US and others.

Israel has repeatedly denied claims of ethnic cleansing, saying its intensive operations in northern Gaza in recent weeks are an operational response to Hamas’s efforts to regroup. At the same time, far-right politicians have made no secret of their desire to see Gaza at least partly depopulated and Israeli settlements rebuilt.

Critics have accused Netanyahu of prolonging the war and refusing to strike a deal with Hamas for a ceasefire and a release of the hostages abducted by terrorists during the October 7 massacre last year, at least in part due to pressure from such politicians, who have threatened to bolt the government if a deal were reached to end the war.

Although Israel says the evacuation orders are justified for Gazan civilians’ safety and to allow the military to operate, Human Rights Watch researcher Nadia Hardman recently said that “Israel cannot simply rely on the presence of armed groups to justify the displacement of civilians.”

HRW published a report in mid-November alleging that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza amounts to the “war crime of forcible transfer,” especially in regard to the operations in northern Gaza.

“Statements by senior officials with command responsibility show that forced displacement is intentional and forms part of Israeli state policy and therefore amounts to a crime against humanity,” Human Rights Watch added. “Israel’s actions appear to also meet the definition of ethnic cleansing” in the areas where Palestinians will not be able to return, HRW said.

Israel rejected the report as “deeply misleading” in portraying the military’s “efforts to minimize civilian harm as tools for forcible displacement.”

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

According to the United Nations, 1.9 million Palestinians were displaced throughout Gaza as of October 2024. Before the start of the war on October 7, 2023, the official population figure for the territory was 2.4 million inhabitants.

The vast majority of the Gazan population is residing in the Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone,” located in the al-Mawasi area on the southern Strip’s coast, the western neighborhoods of Khan Younis and central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah. The size of the zone has changed multiple times, amid evolving IDF operations against Hamas.

Israel launched its military operation after Hamas-led terrorists massacred around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern communities and took 251 hostages to Gaza on October 7, 2023.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 44,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 18,000 combatants in battle as of November and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.