"I am compelled to warn about what is happening there and is being concealed from us," Yaalon told Israel's public broadcaster Kan on Sunday. "At the end of the day, war crimes are being committed." Yaalon is a former army chief of staff who served as defence minister under Netanyahu from 2013-16, and has been a fierce critic of the prime minister ever since. Netanyahu's Likud party accused him of spreading "slanderous lies", while Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, head of a small rightist party, said his accusations were baseless. "Everything Israel does is in accordance with international law and it is a pity that former minister Ya'alon does not realise the damage that he has done and retract his remarks," he told a conference hosted by Israel Today newspaper. The International Criminal Court (ICC) last month issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defence chief Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.