JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL

Former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon has called Israel’s killing of Palestinians “a messianic, nationalist, and fascist ideology."

“This ideology of the (Benjamin) Netanyahu government is supported by rabbinic rulings that say there are no innocent people in Gaza," he said in a post on X.

On Tuesday, Israeli opposition leader Yair Golan accused Israel of killing Palestinian children in Gaza as “a hobby.”

Yaalon said Golan was “mistaken” in his comments.

“It is certainly not a hobby, but a messianic, nationalist, and fascist ideology,” he said.

Golan, a former general and leader of the Democrats Party, said on Tuesday that Israel is becoming a pariah state that kills children as “a hobby."

“A sane country does not fight against civilians, does not kill children as a hobby, and does not give itself the aim of expelling populations,” Golan told the public broadcaster KAN.

The unprecedented statements triggered furious reactions from Netanyahu and his government members, who continue to ignore international calls to end the brutal war on Gaza.

Yaalon called the Netanyahu coalition “a government of extremists, evaders, and corrupts.”

“We will go out to demonstrate en masse until we reach a peaceful civil disobedience,” he said.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing nearly 53,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.