A former Israeli general running for prime minister allegedly used stolen Palestinian footage for a series of campaign ads in which he boasted of sending parts of Gaza “back to the Stone Age” during the 2014 war.

Benny Gantz was the head of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) during the 2014 conflict but has now entered politics and is running against Benjamin Netanyahu in April's elections.

The 59-year-old has said little about his political positions so far but released a series of videos burnishing his military credentials.

One boasts of killing 1,364 Palestinian terrorists during the war, while another says that under Mr Gantz’s command “parts of Gaza were sent back to the Stone Age.” The videos make no mention of the 1,462 civilians killed during the conflict, according to a UN count.

A third video features drone footage showing the scale of destruction in Gaza after the war. The footage was shot by Media Town, a Palestinian film company based in Gaza, and the group said Mr Gantz’s campaign had stolen the footage and used it without permission.

“These stolen images were used to boast about the murder and destruction Gantz committed in Gaza,” said Ashraf Mashharawi, the chief executive of Media Town. “It is inhuman to destroy people’s lives and then say you are proud of it.”