Yesterday, Tuesday, Hebrew media revealed that dozens of Israeli reserve soldiers announced their refusal to return to military service in the Gaza Strip, and that they signed the first letter of refusal to serve since the outbreak of the war on October 7 last year.
The Israeli newspaper "Haaretz" reported that 42 reservist soldiers, who served in the army during the current war, signed at the end of last May the first letter refusing to serve since the outbreak of the war. Ten of them signed the letter with their full names and the others with their initials, and said in it: "The six months... In which we participated in the war effort, it proved to us that military action alone will not return the prisoners.”
The soldiers added: “We will not return to military service in Gaza, even if we pay the price for our position,” noting that “this invasion, in addition to endangering our lives and the lives of innocent people in Rafah, will not bring the prisoners back alive. Either Rafah or the prisoners, and we choose the prisoners.” They explained, “Therefore, after the decision to enter Rafah at the expense of an exchange deal, we, the male and female reserve soldiers, declare that our conscience does not allow us to ignore the lives of the prisoners and spoil another deal.”
According to the newspaper, 16 of the signatories of the letter serve in the Intelligence Corps, 7 in the Home Front Command, the rest in the infantry, combat engineering and armored units, while two serve in the elite units.
"We will not fight in Gaza"
The newspaper quoted one of them, Tal Vardi (28 years old), a civic education teacher, as saying that if he was called to serve in the north (i.e. Lebanon), he would join the army, but would not fight again in Gaza. He added: “Vardi was broken when Israel entered Rafah, instead of From signing a prisoner exchange deal,” Vardi said: “Once the operation began in Rafah, I felt that it went beyond what I could feel was morally right, and could not be justified.”
As for Yuval Green, a 26-year-old paratrooper, he said that even before October 7, he was thinking about whether he would continue serving in the reserves. Because he opposes the occupation and Israel's policy in the West Bank, but on October 8, Green put aside his moral doubts and was drafted into the reserves, according to the newspaper.
Green said that the army crossed a red line when the company commander ordered the crew to burn a Palestinian house in which they were present, when it was time for them to leave, and the team had burned houses before, adding: “I spoke to the company commander, and I tried to understand the reason: Is it the house of a Hamas activist?” ?” The company commander replied, “The house must be burned so that no military equipment is left there and the army’s fighting methods are not exposed.” But Green was not convinced.
"Unjustified killing"
As for Michael Ofer Ziv (29 years old), he told the newspaper that he felt confused when he was at a military headquarters and saw Israeli warplanes bombing Gaza, and he added: “It is very difficult to determine what is justified and what is unjustified (...) In war, 30 are not killed.” A thousand people (directly), and most of them are buried under the rubble when they are bombed from the air. What happens is random shooting.”
According to the newspaper: “He realized the falsity of the (large) number of civilians who could be killed as a result of every bomb he saw,” and stressed that the army would do anything to achieve its goals, including “dismantling Hamas and returning prisoners.” He added: “Burning buildings without operational necessity contradicts "Military orders and the values of the Israeli army, but buildings are already being bombed and destroyed."
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