Moshe Ya'alon
Moshe Ya'alonArie Leib Abrams/Flash90

At a demonstration for the hostages in Beersheba, former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon tried to explain his comments that "Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing in Gaza."

In remarks first published by Kan Reshet Bet, Ya'alon claimed that: "The call to me, following which I made a statement, was from commanders who are sent to perform operational activities for the evacuation of the population from the northern Gaza Strip, and politicians such as Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben Gvir and Daniella Weiss (from the Nachala organization) are talking about a Gaza free of Arabs, thinning the population and settling Jews."

He added: "I made my statement in order to defend the soldiers, because when it happens, these are war crimes. Because of the politicians’ statements, because there is no decision on the end goal, and because they are pushing for the thinning or cleansing of the population, it is a war crime, and I warned this, in order to prevent the soldiers from being harmed."

"Since when have prime ministers been brought to trial before the International Court of Justice in The Hague? Only Gaddafi, Milošovich and Putin. That's right, because of double standards and antisemitism. But also because of their military coup and their conduct on the various fronts. I was also exposed to it, but I always came out protected, because there was a law enforcement system here that was considered to be a democracy by the world," Ya'alon concluded.

Two weeks ago, Ya'alon caused an uproar when he said in an interview with the Democratic TV station that Israel was carrying out ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip.

"In the way that we are currently being dragged into this situation, we are being dragged into occupation, annexation, and ethnic cleansing. Look at the northern Gaza Strip, 'transfer,' call it whatever you want, in order to settle a Jewish settlement there. That's the point. We must not be confused, because whoever wants to confuse us, is the one who is leading us right now to no less than destruction. After all, what is going on there? What's going on there? There is no Beit Lahiya, there is no Beit Hanoun, they are currently operating in Jabaliya. And in fact, they are clearing the area of the Arabs."