AhlulBayt News Agency: Former Israeli minister of military affairs and ex-chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon has said that the current minister, Israel Katz, effectively admitted to committing a war crime when he threatened to turn Gaza City into rubble like Rafah and Beit Hanoun during the military’s planned takeover.
Katz said on Friday that “the gates of hell will soon open over” Hamas fighters in Gaza — “unless they agree to Israel’s conditions for ending the war,” primarily the release of all captives and “their disarmament.”
“If they do not agree, Gaza, the capital of Hamas, will become Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” he added.
Both cities have been reduced to ruins following Israeli military offensives.
Katz’s comments came after the Israeli cabinet approved plans for a massive assault on Gaza City, despite widespread international and domestic opposition.
On Sunday, Ya’alon asserted that Katz’s 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,” said the ex-military official, calling for Israeli authorities to intervene and prevent the Gaza City offensive from going ahead.
He highlighted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet is “messianic,” “evasive,” and “corrupt” and “does not serve” the Israeli regime, but rather “its grip on power”, while “neglecting” the captives.
On Monday, Hamas agreed to a proposal by Qatari and Egyptian mediators for a 60-day ceasefire, which, according to Qatar, would see the release of half of the 50 remaining captives in Gaza.
It is believed that only 20 of the 50 captives are still alive after 22 months of relentless Israeli bombardment of the besieged territory.
However, Netanyahu rejected the ceasefire deal, saying he had instructed negotiations to begin for the release of all remaining captives and an end to the war in Gaza on terms “acceptable to Israel.”
According to a report by Israel’s Channel 13, former US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed that Netanyahu, along with his hawkish ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, has obstructed Gaza ceasefire talks multiple times, while the US kept blaming Hamas for the failure.
The report documented how Netanyahu placed new conditions whenever talks neared success.
Netanyahu’s cabinet resisted ceasefire terms and repeatedly reset negotiations, it added.
Since the Israeli regime began its genocidal assault on Gaza on October 7, 2023, it has killed at least 62,622 people and wounded 157,673, most of them children and women.
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