"The road we are being led down is conquest, annexation and ethnic cleansing," Yaalon said in an interview on the private DemocratTV channel.

Pressed on the "ethnic cleansing" appraisal, he continued: "What is happening there? There is no more Beit Lahia, no more Beit Hanoun, the army intervenes in Jabalia and in reality the land is being cleared of [Palestinians] Arabs."

The north of the Gaza Strip, which includes the areas Yaalon mentioned, has been the target of an Israeli assault since October 6 that has led aid workers to describe the situation in the north as "apocalyptic" and the Israeli assault as a "genocide within a genocide."

Yaalon, 74, was the head of the Israeli army between 2002 and 2005, just before Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza.

He served as defence minister and deputy premier before resigning in 2016 over disagreements with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

There was immediate anger in Israel at his comments.

Extremist far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said it was a "shame" for Israel to "have had such a figure as army chief and defence minister".

Netanyahu's Likud party, to which Yaalon once belonged, slammed his remarks, calling them "a gift to the ICC and to the camp of Israel's enemies".

The statement was a reference to the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his ex-defence minister Yoav Gallant for committing crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.

Israel's war on Gaza has so far killed 44,382 Palestinians and wounded more than 105,142, according to figures from the territory's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.

The war has destroyed vast areas of the coastal enclave and displaced 90 percent of the population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands have crammed into squalid tent camps, where conditions have worsened as the cold, wet winter sets in.

Earlier this month, a UN special committee pointed to "mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians".

Israel's prosecution of the war in Gaza was "consistent with the characteristics of genocide", the committee said.

Human Rights Watch said in a report in November that Israel's repeated evacuation orders in Gaza amount to the "war crime of forcible transfer" and meet the definition of "ethnic cleansing" in parts of the Palestinian territory.

HRW's report argued "the actions of the Israeli authorities in Gaza are the actions of one ethnic or religious group to remove Palestinians, another ethnic or religious group, from areas within Gaza by violent means".

It pointed to the organised nature of the displacement, and the intention for Israeli forces to ensure affected areas will "remain permanently emptied and cleansed of Palestinians".

At the time the report was issued, UN Palestinian refugee agency spokeswoman Louise Wateridge told AFP that Israel's assault has forced the displacement of at least 100,000 people from the Palestinian territory's far north to Gaza City and surrounding areas.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.