Israeli Soldiers Refusing To Fight In Gaza: Everyone in the platoon knows someone who has been killed. Yuval Green, 26, knows three of them. He was a reservist in the Israeli army when he first learned of the Hamas attack on October 7.
“Israel is a small country,” he says. “Everyone knows each other.” The Hamas attack killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 251. Ninety-seven of the hostages have not been recovered, half of whom are believed to be alive.
Yuval remembers seeing the destruction in urban areas near the Gaza border. “There were bodies in the streets, car tires punctured by bullets.”
At that time, he had no doubt that the country was under attack and that he had to join the defense to bring back the hostages. But then the war in Gaza began, and he saw the other side of the picture. He remembers the night he saw crows eating human remains on the side of a road.
“Imagine the apocalypse, buildings everywhere, destroyed by fire, missiles, everything. This is the picture of Gaza right now,” he says. Yuval, who volunteered to fight a year after the October 7 attack, is refusing to fight today.
A group of dissenting soldiers
They are part of a group of regular soldiers, including reservists in the Israeli army, who are refusing to fight or threatening to do so until the hostages are released. They total 165 and have signed a letter. But for this to happen, a ceasefire with Hamas is necessary.
However, this is a minority in the presence of approximately 465,000 reserve personnel. Another reason is fatigue.
Reports of fatigue
According to Israeli media reports, many soldiers are no longer returning to duty. According to the Times of Israel and several other broadcast outlets, military sources have said that the number of soldiers who are not reporting for duty due to fatigue from long service is now between 15 and 25 percent.
Although there is no public acceptance of soldiers who refuse to perform their duty due to the voice of conscience, it is clear that many of the demands of the soldiers who wrote public letters have public support.
A recent survey conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute indicates that 45 percent of Jews want an end to the Israeli war, while 43 percent want the Israeli military to continue the war until Hamas is completely eliminated.
This survey also highlights the political divide in the country, as only 26 percent believe that there is unity in the country, while 44 percent say there is no such thing.
Political implications
One reason for this is the belief among left-leaning Israelis that the war is being prolonged by far-right political parties whose support Prime Minister Netanyahu needs to regain power.
Even former Defense Minister Gallant, who was fired last month and is a member of Netanyahu’s own party, cited the failure to recover the hostages as a reason for his differences with the prime minister.
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The Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for alleged war crimes, but Netanyahu has repeatedly said that he fully intends to recover the hostages and has not backed down.
The Seed of Denial
The reason for Yuval’s refusal became clear after the war began. The deputy speaker of the Israeli parliament said at the time that “the Gaza Strip should be wiped off the face of the earth.” A prominent rabbi said of the Palestinians in Gaza, “If you don’t kill them, they will kill you.” He said, “Soldiers should only do what they are ordered to do.”
However, this language disturbed Yuval. “People were talking about killing the entire population of Gaza as if it were something understandable. In this environment, soldiers entered Gaza at a time when only a month earlier their friends had been slaughtered and were hearing about soldiers being killed every day. The soldiers did a lot.”
Social media posts from Israeli soldiers in Gaza have emerged showing prisoners being abused, buildings being damaged, and ordinary Palestinians being mocked.
In addition, there were incidents of soldiers taking photos with women’s clothing and underwear, as well as with items used by people.
Yuval says he tried to fight in this “hateful, inhumane environment.” However, things got serious for him when he received an order he could not obey.
“We had the nerve to burn a house, and I went to my commander and asked why we were doing this? I didn’t get a satisfactory answer. I didn’t want to burn someone’s house without a plausible reason. Or without knowing if there was a military purpose or not. So I refused and returned.”
This was their last day in Gaza. The Israeli military told me in response that their operations are “based on military necessity and in compliance with international law.” According to the response, “Hamas illegally establishes military installations in civilian areas.”
Testimonies of Refusal
The BBC spoke to three Israeli soldiers who refused to take any further part in the fighting. Two of them agreed to be named, but the third spoke on condition of anonymity.
All three emphasized that they loved their country, but due to their war experience and the failure to reach an agreement to release the hostages, they morally decided not to fight.
‘People would Calmly Talk about Abuse and Murder’
The soldier who spoke to us on condition of anonymity was at Tel Aviv airport when the Hamas attack happened. “I remember the journey home. I was listening to the radio and people were calling me saying, ‘My father has been kidnapped, help me, no one is helping me.’ It was like a really scary dream,” he says.
He felt that the Israeli army, the IDF, was for moments like this. Not to raid homes in the occupied West Bank or chase down stone-throwing youths. “For the first time, I realized that I had truly joined the army to defend myself.”
As the war progressed, his views began to change. “I began to realize that this war was not about saving the lives of the Israeli people.” According to him, these thoughts are based on his observations. “I tried to tell myself that this is what happens to people who are affected by war.”
However, he remembers how his comrades and even his commanders would talk ‘gloriously’ about beating up helpless Palestinians. He heard even more horrific things. “People would talk very calmly about abuse and even murder, as if it were a technical matter. I was very surprised.”
The soldier said he personally saw prisoners who were blindfolded, not allowed to move, and given such small amounts of food that it was shocking.
When their first visit ended, they decided not to return. The IDF quoted me as saying in May that “ill-treatment of any prisoner is prohibited.” The Israeli military also said that prisoners are provided with three meals a day and that prisoners’ hands are only tied when there is a security risk, and that daily checks are made to ensure that the handcuffs are not too tight. However, according to the United Nations, reports of alleged abuse and sexual harassment of prisoners by Israeli guards are illegal acts.
‘Breeding of Barbarity’
Michael Ofer, 29, knows two people killed on October 7, one of whom was found dead in a pickup truck in Gaza, becoming the most-shared image of the war.
Michael was left-wing and supported a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, like his colleagues, he felt that going on reserve duty was the right step. “I knew that military action was necessary, but I was worried about what form it would take.”
His job was as an operations officer in a brigade’s war room, from where he viewed footage captured by drones in Gaza and relayed it to higher authorities.
He says that he also made the decision after discussions with his colleagues. “The most horrific sentence anyone ever said to me was that children were spared in the last war who turned out to be terrorists on October 7. Maybe that’s true for a few, but not for everyone.”
He says that “a minority holds such extremist views, but the majority also ignores the price that is being paid during the war.” He also disagreed with statements about establishing Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories, especially Gaza, after the war, which is a declared goal of far-right government ministers.
Statistics show that the Israeli army has a large number of officers and soldiers with nationalist religious leanings.
They are supporters of far-right Jewish nationalist parties that also express a desire for settlement in Palestinian territories. They are also opposed to the establishment of a Palestinian state. According to research by the Israel Center for Public Affairs, the number of such officers graduating from military academies increased from 2.5 percent in 1990 to 40 percent in 2014.
Ten years ago, Professor Mordechai, who worked at the Israel Democracy Institute, warned that “there is an opportunity for the growth of barbarism in the context of the superiority of the Jewish race in the army and the inhumane view of the enemy.”
The defining moment for Michael Ofer came when soldiers killed three Israeli hostages in December last year.
The three men were walking towards the Israeli soldiers, and one of them was carrying a stick with a white cloth tied to it, which is considered a symbol of peace in war situations.
According to the Israeli military, the soldiers felt threatened and opened fire, killing two Israeli hostages and wounding a third. However, the wounded Israeli citizen was shot again, killing him, even though the Israeli commander had ordered not to shoot, which one soldier ignored.
“I thought about how morally degraded we have fallen that this could happen,” Michael said. “And I also thought that this wouldn’t be the first time that innocent people were killed. This is just the first time we’re hearing about it because these were Israeli hostages. If the victims were Palestinians, we would never know about it.”
The IDF has stated that soldiers who refuse to fight are dealt with individually, and Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly emphasized that the IDF is “the most principled army in the world.”
It should be remembered that the IDF, which helped establish Israel in 1948, guarantees protection for the majority of Israelis, and every Jewish citizen over the age of 18 must serve in the army for some time. In addition, there is compulsory service for Christian and Druze citizens.
The soldiers who refuse are also facing opposition. Some prominent politicians, including cabinet members, have called for action and arrests. But so far, the government has not taken any such step because, according to Yuval, “the army knows that doing so will draw attention to our actions and they want us to leave quietly.”
On the other hand, Israeli citizens who refuse to serve at the outset face severe sanctions. Eight such citizens have served time in military prison.
The Future of the Jewish State
Major Sam Lipsky, 31, also fought in the war in Gaza. He opposes the deniers, accusing them of being “political and opposed to the current government.”
He himself supports the center-right in Israel, but not the far-right, represented by advisors like Itmar Ben-Governor, who has been accused of supporting racism and terrorism.
Major Lipsky acknowledges that civilians in Gaza were affected, nor does he deny the depiction of dead people and maimed children and women.
During the conversation at his home in southern Israel, his two children were sleeping in the next room. “There is no other way to fight a war that doesn’t involve such images,” he says. Then he uses a phrase he has heard from past Israeli leaders. “You can’t stop mowing your lawn for fear of blowing grass. That’s not possible.”
But they blame Hamas, which, in their words, “killed women, children, and soldiers.”
The Gaza war has put a stop to the debate on the future shape of the state of Israel. The debate is actually between the liberals and the increasingly powerful far right, which is represented in Netanyahu’s cabinet. Given the government’s attempt to limit the powers of the judiciary in 2023, the post-war period is set to be a period of turbulent politics.
People on both sides of this debate talk about a fight for the soul of Israel. The evening I met with Major Lipsky, he was preparing to leave. He believes that peace is impossible until Hamas is completely defeated.
On the other hand, the soldiers who refuse show their determination to stand by their principles. Michael Ofer may leave Israel because he is no longer convinced that he can be happy in this country. “I don’t think the future I want for my children is possible in this country.”
Yuval, who is training to be a doctor, hopes that some kind of agreement will be reached between peacemakers in Israel and Palestinian citizens. “I think there are only two sides to this conflict, not Israelis and Palestinians, but those who support violence and those who want to find a better solution,” he says.
Many Israelis may not agree with this, but Yuval is not about to back down from his views.