About 600 former Israeli security officials, including previous heads of intelligence services the Mossad and the military, have urged US president Donald Trump to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza as the country’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, considers expanding the conflict.
In an open letter, the former officials said an end to the war is the only way to save hostages still held by Hamas.
“Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer prime minister Netanyahu and his government in the right direction: end the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering,” they wrote.
They added that they thought Hamas no longer posed a strategic threat to Israel.
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The letter comes as pressure mounts for the Israeli government to end the war, even as Mr Netanyahu considers intensifying the offensive. Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Israel over the weekend after two videos were released of emaciated hostages held in Gaza.
One video in particular, which depicted a skeletal Evyatar David digging what he said could be his own grave, prompted a wave of outrage across Israel.
President Michael D Higgins on Sunday condemned the footage as a “shocking act of cruelty” that “reflects not only on those responsible for such actions but damages any cause to which they attach themselves”.
On Sunday night, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum headquarters released a statement accusing Mr Netanyahu of “leading Israel and the kidnapped to doom”.
According to Israeli media, Mr Netanyahu wants to try “pushing for the release of the hostages through decisive military victory”.
He is expected to hold a meeting on Tuesday to decide on the best path forward in Gaza, with expanded military operations on the table. Intensifying military activity in the Palestinian territory would placate the far-right ministers in Mr Netanyahu’s governing coalition, who have consistently advocated against a ceasefire.
The Israeli government is exploring the idea of intensified military operations as ceasefire negotiations seemed to have stalled, which it blames on Hamas. The US and Israel withdrew their negotiators from Doha 10 days ago and said they would explore “alternative options” to retrieve the hostages.
An expansion of the war would be contrary to what Mr Trump’s Middle East envoy told the families of hostages over the weekend was the US position. Steve Witkoff said Washington was backing a comprehensive end to the Gaza war that would bring hostages home and assured the families that would not mean more fighting.
Any expansion of the conflict would risk worsening the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza. A UN-affiliated humanitarian body said the territory was experiencing famine, as the approximate 2.1 million people who live there experience mass starvation. Despite the announcement of expanded aid measures in Gaza, humanitarian groups say Israel is still not letting nearly enough aid into the territory. Israel blames the UN for not distributing aid efficiently.
At least 40 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and air strikes in Gaza on Monday, in addition to five people who died of starvation, health authorities said. At least 10 of those who were killed were shot as they queued for aid outside distribution centres run by the private US Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Almost 61,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began. Israel launched the war in response to an attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023 in which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostage.
Families of the hostages rejected the idea of further fighting in Gaza, which they said on Sunday “endangers the lives of the kidnapped, who are already in immediate danger of death”.
The former Israeli security officials also warned against an expansion of the war, arguing that Israel had long since achieved its military objectives in Gaza.
“At first this war was a just war, a defensive war, but when we achieved all military objectives, this war ceased to be a just war,” Ami Ayalon, the former head of the Shin Bet security agency, said in a video on Sunday night. “This [war] is leading the state of Israel to the loss of its security and identity.”
– The Guardian
