Israel commits daily war crimes in Gaza, West Bank: Ex-premier

By Zein Khalil and Mohammad Sio

JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL (AA) – Israel is committing daily war crimes in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday.

In an interview with Israel’s public broadcaster KAN, Olmert condemned remarks by members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who called for the Palestinian village of Huwara in the northern West Bank to be burned.

“Anyone who calls for burning villages is calling for genocide,” Olmert said.

“War crimes are not being committed in Gaza alone. They are committed daily in the West Bank by Israelis, without intervention from the police or the army – or they turn a blind eye,” he added.

Olmert, who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2009, also criticized Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, describing it as a “political war without purpose” that would fail to bring home any hostages and would only lead to further loss of Israeli soldiers’ lives.

At least 969 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Nearly 53,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have also been killed in Gaza.

The International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land illegal last July and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.