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A political row has erupted in Israel after left-wing MP Yair Golan said his country was killing children in Gaza “as a hobby”.
“Israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa was, if we don’t return to acting like a sane country,” Mr Golan, head of the opposition Democrats, said in an interview with public broadcaster Kan.
“And 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,” he said.
Israel’s war against Hamas has destroyed most of Gaza, and killed more than 53,475 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The war has displaced about 90 per cent of its population, evicting most of them from their homes and shelters several times.
Mr Golan said the government “is full of vengeful types with no morals and no ability to run a country in a time of crisis”.
“This endangers our existence,” the army reserve major general said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to social media to condemn Mr Golan's “wild incitement against our heroic soldiers and against the state of Israel”.
Mr Netanyahu, who claimed Israel's is the most moral army in the world, said his soldiers are “fighting in a battle for our very existence”.
“Golan, who encourages defiance and has previously compared Israel to the Nazis while in uniform, has now reached a new low by claiming that Israel kills babies as a hobby.”
He accused Mr Golan and “his friends on the radical left” of “echoing the most despicable anti-Semitic blood libels against IDF soldiers and the state of Israel” while Israel is “waging a multi-sector war and leading complex diplomatic efforts to free our hostages and defeat Hamas.”
Israel over the weekend launched a wave of air and ground attacks across Gaza. The army evicted residents from Gaza's second-largest city, Khan Younis, where a military operation earlier in the 19-month war left much of the area in ruins.
Israel says it is pressuring Hamas to release the remaining hostages abducted in the October 2023 attack. Hamas has said it will only release them in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.
Israel resumed its military operations in Gaza on March 18 ending a two-month ceasefire. Since then, 3,340 people have been killed.
In a joint statement late on Monday, the leaders of Britain, Canada and France threatened “concrete actions” against Israel if it does not stop its renewed military offensive in Gaza and lift aid restrictions.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The group is still holding 58 captives, around a third believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
More deadly strikes
Israel's intensified air strikes on the Gaza Strip, killed at least 60 people overnight on Monday and into Tuesday, according to Palestinian health officials.
Two strikes in northern Gaza hit a family home and a school-turned-shelter, killing at least 22 people, more than half of them women and children, officials said.
A strike in the central city of Deir Al Balah killed 13 people, and another in the nearby Nuseirat refugee camp killed 15, according to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Two strikes Khan Younis killed 10 people, according to Nasser Hospital.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which claims it only targets militants.
Israel has launched another offensive in the territory in recent days, saying it aims to return dozens of hostages held by Hamas and destroy the militant group.
