Gallant's position is that there are no innocent people in Gaza and that they should be starved to death. He's said this many times:

https://x.com/KhalilJeries/status/1853905224320372923

I didn't know about this before, thanks :|

I thought he was much more of a moderate in Netanyahu cabinet.

There's a large attempt to pin all of this on Netanyahu and his closest cabinet but what he's saying is pretty much supported by nearly all of Israeli society down to individual citizens. I encourage everyone to find people who live in Israel on X and translate their tweets so they can see for themselves.

It's utterly appalling, and the main reason I tend to think the end of apartheid in Israel will look substantially different than the end of apartheid in South Africa.

He is a moderate; which tells you all you need to know about contemporary Israel politics and ethical standards.

Liberal Zionists like to pretend Gallant was the "moderate one" but in reality there is essentially no moderate in current Israeli society, there is only the secular far right and the messianic further right. The two differ only in small derails of their preferred strategy when using the military to ethnically cleanse Gaza. There is no significant coalition that recognizes basic human rights for Palestinians.

He is a member of Netanyahu's party, which is a right-wing party (though not far-right in terms of Israeli politics).

He is certainly not a moderate, but he is far more trusted than Netanyahu and is considered a moderating and opposing influence on him by many people. Mostly representing the interested of the defence establishment, as opposed to purely political interests (or, if you ask me, as opposed to Netanyahu's only real interest, which is himself).

Just a note that the translation in that video is slightly incorrect - he mentions Gaza City, not the Gaza strip.

"Defense minister [Gallant] announces ‘complete siege’ of Gaza: No power, food or fuel". [1]

[1] https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/defense-ministe...

Thanks for the link, I didn't know that it was he who announced that. Thank you!

Being the minister of defense gives you culpability for the military actions the ICC has decided are war crimes, I'd think? But I am not an expert in international law, just don't find it surprising.

Yep, commanders are responsible for the actions undertaken by their troops.

It's called Command responsibility or sometimes the Yamashita principle/doctrine, after a Japanese general who was executed for horrific crimes committed by troops not even under his command, but in his area of responsibility (they were naval troops in the Philippines, he was commander of the Philippines, the navy and the army hated each other; he pulled out of Manilla in order to wage war in favourable terrain, the naval infantry commander refused to follow him and fought a brutal urban battle that destroyed the city, and on purpose killed more than a hundred thousand civilians).

Most just ordered horrific atrocities, their men to die, and then killed themselves.

He's the minister of defense (not anymore but was at the time). If the allegations are true, then as minister of defense he probably ordered the things in question (or failed to stop them)

Okay, failing to stop them is a fair point I haven't considered - thanks.

That said, it seems he is mostly accused of direct criminal liability not superior liability (failing to prevent/punish)

As I understand it, he was the mastermind behind the policy of starvation and hindering of aid into Gaza. There is a famous video of him promising such in October 2023. He was also the defense minister in a time when several hospitals were targeted and damaged, so it is not hard to see the responsibility of this policy falling on him.

You're not surprised that the prime minister is accused of war crimes, but surprised the minister of defense is?