A former Israeli defence minister has accused Israel of committing “war crimes” and “ethnic cleansing” in the Gaza Strip, drawing a sharp rebuke from government ranks, Reuters reports.

Moshe Yaalon, a hawkish former general, told Israeli media that hardliners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet were looking to chase Palestinians from northern Gaza and wanted to re-establish Jewish settlements there.

“I am compelled to warn about what is happening there and is being concealed from us,” Yaalon told Israel’s public broadcaster Kan on Sunday. “At the end of the day, war crimes are being committed.”

In a separate interview with Democrat TV on Saturday, Yaalon warned that the nation was at a crossroads with the government looking “to conquer, to annex, to carry out ethnic cleansing”.