Netanyahu is under pressure where the elderly speaks against the Gaza war

The Israeli war in Gaza is flowing, but the opposition grows.

In recent weeks, thousands of Israeli reserve soldiers – from all branches of the army – have signed messages asking the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop fighting and focus instead on reaching an agreement to return the 59 hostages that Hamas maintains.

Eighteen months ago, a few Israelis questioned the logic of war: the defeat of Hamas and the return of the hostages.

For many, the ceasefire in January and the subsequent return of more than 30 hostages raised hopes that the war will end soon.

But after Israel broke the ceasefire and returned to the war in mid -March, these hopes were resolved.

“We have reached the conclusion that Israel will go to a very bad place,” Danny Yatom, head of the Mossad espionage.

“We understand that what bothers you mainly Netanyahu is his own interests. In the list of priorities, his interests and the interests of the existence of the stable government are the first, not the hostages.”

Many of those who have been on the last messages, such as Yatom, long critics of the Prime Minister. Some participated in the anti -government protests before the outbreak of the war on October 7, 2023 after Hamas’s attack on Israel.

But Yatom says this is not why he decided to speak.

“I fell my name while I was participating in the demonstrations, not because of any political reason, but because of a national reason,” he said.

“I am very worried that my country will lose his way.”

The first open message to be published, in early April, was signed by 1,000 reserve soldiers and retirees.

“The continuation of the war does not contribute to any of its declared goals,” they wrote, and will lead to the death of the hostages. “

The Israeli signatories urged their progress before the time ran out of time there is still a hostage of 24 hostages who are still alive in Gaza.

“Every day it passes through their lives. Every moment of hesitation is a shame on crying.”

In the weeks that followed, similar messages appeared from almost every branch of the army, including elite fighting and intelligence units, along with a number of decorated leaders.

More than 12,000 signatures all.

After October 7, hundreds of thousands of Israeli reserve soldiers answered the call, keen to serve.

But now, he refuses more and more, as reports indicate that the reserve presence has decreased to between 50 and 60 %.

As for the army, which relies heavily on reserve soldiers for its wars, it is a crisis that is looming on the horizon on a scale that has not seen it since the first Lebanon war in Israel in 1982.

In the Jerusalem Parking Garden, I met “YOAV” (not his real name), and he is holding infantry reserves asking not to recognize him.

YOAV served in Gaza last summer, but said he would not do it again.

He told me: “I had a feeling that I needed to go to help my brothers and sisters.”

“I thought I was doing something good. Plated but good. But now, I no longer see it in the same way.”

Yoof said that the government’s determination to continue to fight Hamas, while the hostages are risking the death of the Gaza tunnels in a place.

“We are very strong and we can overcome enthusiasm, but it is not a matter of hitting Hamas,” he said. “It comes to losing our country.”

During his time in Gaza, Yuff told me that he tried to be “the best moral soldier that a man could be.”

Critics say that the longer the war is long, it is difficult for Israel to claim, as government officials do, often, that its army is the most moral army in the world.

In a modern column on the left of Haaretz, retired general Amir Livin said that it was time for soldiers – starting with senior leaders – to think about disobedience orders.

“The danger of traction to war crimes and a deadly blow to the Israeli defense forces and our social morals,” make it impossible to stand idly. “

Some of the critics of Israel, including those who brought cases before the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, argue that such lines have already been brought before.

Netanyahu criticized the demonstrators, rejected their concerns as “lies”, and spread with a “small handful of marginal – noisy, loud, chaotic and detailed retirees, most of whom had not served years ago.”

But opinion polls indicate that protest messages reflect an increasing general condemnation: that the launch of the remaining hostages must come above all.

In Tel Aviv, where the anti -war demonstrations were held for more than a year, the hostages are held high, while other demonstrators sit on the road and get pictures of Palestinian children who were killed during the war.

Amid the row resulting from the letters, it appears that such emotional offers shook the authorities.

On April 20, the police briefly told the “pictures of children or children from Gaza” to be allowed, in addition to the stickers that display the phrase “genocide” or “ethnic cleansing”.

After expressing anger from the organizers, the police quickly retreated.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister continues to talk about his determination to defeat Hamas.

Military pressure, Netanyahu continues to insist, is the only way to return the hostages home.