'Indiscriminate, Unrestrained, Brutal': Former Israeli PM Calls Gaza Assault 'War Crimes'

Last week, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, seen here at a March 2023 demonstration in Tel Aviv, wrote an op-ed condemning his country for committing "war crimes" in Gaza.Israel’s former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he now believes his country’s relentless assault on the Palestinian people amounts to “war crimes” and must be stopped.Addressing the people of Israel in an article written in Hebrew and published by Haaretz on Thursday, Olmert, who served from 2006 to 2009, condemned current prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government for “waging a pointless war, without a clear goal or plan, and with no chance of success,” according to Google’s translation of the piece. While Olmert wrote that he had previously defended his country against “accusations of genocide and war crimes,” the Israeli politician said he can no longer see the widespread slaughter of civilians, including women, children and the elderly, or the campaign to starve Gaza as mere collateral damage in “a brutal war.”“What we are doing in Gaza is a war of extermination: indiscriminate, unrestrained, brutal, and criminal killing of civilians,” he said.“We are doing this not because of an accidental loss of control in a particular sector, not because of a disproportionate outburst of fighters in some unit — but as a result of a policy dictated by the government, knowingly, intentionally, viciously, maliciously, recklessly,” Olmert’s op-ed continued. “Yes, we are committing war crimes.”Last week, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, seen here at a March 2023 demonstration in Tel Aviv, wrote an op-ed condemning his country for committing "war crimes" in Gaza.Olmert also wrote that the current administration can no longer dismiss criticism of the military onslaught or the monthslong blockade of food and medical supplies as antisemitism, as Netanyahu once again did last week.When French president Emmanuel Macron, Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and UK prime minister Keir Starmer issued a joint statement calling for Israel to “stop its military operations in Gaza” and “immediately allow humanitarian aid” into the region, Netanyahu accused the trio of “emboldening Hamas” and its aims to “annihilate the Jewish people.”“When mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, you’re on the wrong side of justice,” he wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.Describing such deflections from Netanyahu and his “gang of criminals” as disingenuous, Olmert wrote, “The Netanyahu government’s chorus of thugs and the poison machine it operates will immediately leap up with characteristic shrieks of rapprochement: The gentiles are anti-Semites. They hate us. They have always been against us. They support terrorism — and we fight terrorism.”“The truth is, these governments are not anti-Israel, they are anti-the Israeli government,” he said.People commute Sunday along Gaza's al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory.At the end of his piece, Olmert warned that Israel must heed these warnings “before we are all ostracised from the family of nations and summoned to the International Criminal Court for war crimes, and a good defence won’t stand a chance against us.”After blocking food and medical aid from coming into Gaza for two-and-a-half months, Israel began allowing a limited amount of supplies into the region last week.United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said the level of aid was still woefully insufficient and condemned Israel’s military offensive for “intensifying with atrocious levels of death and destruction.”According to May numbers from the Gaza Health Ministry, 52,615 people have been killed since conflict in the region ignited after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas 19 months ago that killed more than 1,200 Israelis.Related...Israel Is Fighting 'Proxy War On UK's Behalf' In Gaza, Kemi Badenoch ClaimsIsrael's Netanyahu Claims Starmer Is On 'Wrong Side Of Humanity'Reigning Eurovision Winner JJ Calls For Israel To Be Removed From The Contest

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