Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has condemned his country’s actions in Gaza accusing the Israeli government of killing innocent Palestinians.

Olmert, who served as the prime minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009 made the critical remarks during a BBC interview on Tuesday. come amid growing internal criticism over the handling of the war on the besieged enclave.

He said what Israel was doing in Gaza was “very close to a war crime”.

Middle East Eye reports: He told the network that the “obvious appearance” of the war on Gaza is that “thousands of innocent Palestinians are being killed, as well as many Israeli soldiers,” adding that “from every point of view, this is obnoxious and outrageous.

“The war has no objective and has no chance of achieving anything that could save the lives of the hostages… We are fighting Hamas murderers, we are not fighting innocent civilians, and this must be clear,” Olmert said. 

Olmert’s comments drew ire from several Israeli politicians, including Education Minister Yoav Kisch, who said the former prime minister should be ashamed of himself.

“While IDF soldiers are risking their lives in the face of murderous terror that seeks to destroy us, he chooses to incite and stab them in the back,” Kisch wrote on X. 

Social Equality Minister May Golan hit back at the former premier, writing: “The only crime in this war is your spitting in the faces of (Israeli army) fighters who are currently fighting the modern-day Nazi enemy. And yes, there are innocent people in Gaza – 58 to be exact,” referencing Israeli captives. 

Meanwhiel, Likud MK Nissim Vaturi accused Olmert of being a “corrupt prime minister who has been here since the founding of the state, consumed by self-hatred, a mouthpiece for Hamas”.

Olmert’s comments come a week after he claimed in a BBC interview with Sarah Montague that while he does not know if the complete Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip constitutes as war crime or genocide, he denounced the siege as “totally intolerable, unacceptable, unbearable and unforgivable”.

“In the eyes of the international community maybe we are already considered to be committing war crimes,” he said at the time.