Former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said today that the Israeli army is carrying out ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, and his statement caused outrage among local politicians.
"The way we are being led is conquest, annexation and ethnic cleansing," Jalon said in an interview on the private DemokratTV channel.
Jalon, when asked by a journalist if he thinks that Israel is moving towards ethnic cleansing, replied that the Israeli army is "cleansing the country of Arabs".
The Israeli authorities reacted immediately.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir described it as a shame "that Israel had such a personality as the head of the army and the minister of defense".
Moshe Ya'alon (74) was the head of the Israeli army between 2002 and 2005, just before Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Joining Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, Jalon served as defense minister and deputy prime minister before resigning in 2016 after falling out with Netanyahu.
Considered a hawk during his Likud political career, Jalon teamed up with current opposition leader Yair Lapid in 2019 before retiring from political life in 2021.
Jalon recently supported soldiers who threatened not to report to the army as reservists.
Bonus video:
