Published: 17 April 2025
Last updated: 17 April 2025
Nearly 1,000 current and former Israel Air Force reservists signed a letter last Thursday suppporting an end to the war in Gaza, which they say “chiefly serves political and personal interests, rather than security interests at this point.”
The letter demands "the immediate return of all our hostages without delay, even at the cost of stopping the war immediately" and asserts that “the continuation of the war does not contribute to any of its stated goals and will lead to the death of abductees, IDF soldiers and innocent civilians, and to the attrition of reservists.”
Over the past week, more than a dozen other IDF units and security officials, representing thousands of serving and retired personnel, have issued similar letters. They include the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, the Medical Corps, Navy captains, infantry, paratroopers, artillery, a special missions unit, offensive cyber unit, Mossad, Shin Bet, National Security College graduates, and ex-senior police officials.
Letters of support for the reservists have been issued by civilian groups representing thousands of former diplomats, writers, academics and educators.
It is impossible for someone who works a shift in a cockpit to later come out and express a lack of confidence in the mission
IDF statement
IDF clamps down on dissent
Most of those signing the letters are retired with between 10 and 20 % still in active service, according to varied reports.
Comments1
Rachel Sussman18 April at 10:22 am
Seems to me like Israelis are suffering from confusion and pain which is understandable due to a prolonged painful situation of a kind that was never experienced before.
Israel is a democracy and as such every citizen has the right to express his/ her view. The problem arises not from the fact that these people signed a letter expressing a view as citizens but rather that they chose to do it as members of the IDF. It is for this reason that yes, the army was correct in its decision even if it meant that others chose to follow… and this is not about a ‘supression’ of one’s right to speak…
It is understandable that all desperately want the hostages back.. the pain is such that everyone wants them back at any cost believing that later they, the State of Israel, and the entire Jewish people, can deal with the cost… and while this is understanable, even sounds ‘reasonable’, unfortunately it could be a terrible mistake with terrible future consequences for the State of Israel, its people, and indeed the entire Jewish people… sadly, sometimes there are no easy answers to ease the unbearable pain…