Netanyahu’s ex-defense chief Ya’alon warns Israel on path of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Gaza
Former army head says IDF already cleansing parts of Gaza of Arabs; decries moves to annex, occupy Palestinian territories, says PM and government leading Israel to ‘destruction’
Former defense minister and ex-IDF chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon said on Saturday 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 Gaza Strip, and specified that the IDF was already cleansing parts of Gaza of Arabs, while warning that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was leading the nation to “destruction.”
“The path we are being dragged down is one of occupation, annexation and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip,” the prominent government critic told Democrat TV.
“Transfer, call it what you want, and Jewish settlements,” he said, referring to the idea pushed by the Israeli far-right for population transfer and “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from Gaza, and the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in their place. Netanyahu has repeatedly said such actions are not the goal of the war, nor are they on the agenda.
Ya’alon is a right-wing politician who was a Likud member for years and defense minister under Netanyahu in 2013-2016, but in recent years became a harsh critic of Netanyahu and his governments’ policies.
Said Ya’alon: “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., and also with separation.”
“Therefore, there must be no confusion here. The one who wants to confuse us is the one who is currently leading us to nothing less than destruction,” he said.
Journalist Lucy Aharish, interviewing him, noted that Ya’alon was using surprising language with the term “ethnic cleansing.”
“Ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, is that what you think? That we are on the way to that?” she asked, noting that she never thought she’d hear him use that term.
“Why ‘On the way?'” Ya’alon answered. “What is happening there? What is happening there? There is no Beit Lahia, there is no Beit Hanoun, [the military] are currently operating in Jabalia and are essentially cleansing the area of Arabs.”
Moshe Ya'alon Former Chief of Staff of the Israel???????? Defense Forces admits that what Israel is doing in North Gaza is "Ethnic Cleansing. pic.twitter.com/cYNZCh0bKL
— ???????????????????????????? (@Malcolm_Pal9) November 30, 2024
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar 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.”
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.
After launching a wide scale operation in northern Gaza, Israeli troops evacuated thousands of people from areas in the north of the enclave as they have sought to destroy Hamas terrorists the military says have been regrouping around Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun.
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 Jewish settlements rebuilt.
Critics have accused Netanyahu of prolonging the war and refusing a diplomatic solution at least in part due to pressure by such politicians, who have threatened to bolt the government should the war end.
Although Israel says the evacuation orders are justified for civilians’ safety and to allow the military to operate, Human Rights Watch researcher Nadia Hardman said that “Israel cannot simply rely on the presence of armed groups to justify the displacement of civilians.”
“Israel would have to demonstrate in every instance that displacement of civilians was the only option” to fully comply with international humanitarian law, she said.
The law of armed conflict forbids the forcible displacement of civilian populations from territory deemed “occupied,” unless necessary for the security of civilians or imperative military reasons.
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.
HRW’s report argued that “the actions of the Israeli authorities in Gaza are the actions of one ethnic or religious group to remove Palestinians, another ethnic or religious group, from areas within Gaza by violent means.”
It alleged the nature of the displacement was organized, and that the intention of Israeli forces was to ensure affected areas will “remain permanently emptied and cleansed of Palestinians.”
HRW said the 172-page report’s findings were based on interviews with displaced Gazans, satellite imagery, and public reporting conducted until August 2024.
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 43,000 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.
