Ex-defense minister Ya’alon says Katz admitting to war crimes by threatening to destroy Gaza City

Former defense minister and chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon charges that Defense Minister Israel Katz admitted to “committing a war crime” in the Gaza Strip when he threatened on Friday to turn Gaza City into “Rafah and Beit Hanoun” — two cities that have been largely turned to rubble by Israeli military activity — during the IDF’s planned takeover of the city.

Katz said on Friday that “the gates of hell will soon open over Hamas murderers and rapists in Gaza — unless they agree to Israel’s conditions for ending the war, primarily the release of all hostages and their disarmament.”

Now, Ya’alon asserts that these comments are “an admission to committing a war crime — the evacuation of the residents and the destruction of their homes.”

“The intention to carry this out in Gaza City is clearly an illegal order,” says the ex-defense official, calling for Israel’s legal authorities to intervene and prevent the Gaza City operation from going ahead, saying that only they will be able to prevent soldiers from having to obey “a clearly illegal order.”

“It is in your power to stop the moral and ethical deterioration of our country, which pledged ‘never again!'” implores Ya’alon.

“It is already clear to anyone with eyes in their heads that the messianic, evasive and corrupt government does not serve the country, but rather its grip on power, while neglecting the hostages, sacrificing soldiers, and destroying the country and its future,” he adds.

Ya’alon, a former member of the ruling Likud party, has been a fierce critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since he was ousted as defense minister in 2016.

In November last year, he warned that Israel was heading down a path of ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip.