Hundreds of ex-Israeli security officials urge Trump to help end war in Gaza
In an open letter, the former officials said an end to the war was 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.
The letter comes as pressure mounts for the Israeli government to end the war, even as 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.
On Sunday night, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum headquarters released a statement that accused Netanyahu of 'leading Israel and the kidnapped to doom'.
Netanyahu said on Monday he would convene his security cabinet this week to discuss how to instruct the military to meet his war goals in Gaza, with Israeli media reporting the prime minister was inclining towards expanding the offensive and seizing the entire Palestinian territory.
According to Israeli media, Netanyahu wants to try 'pushing for the release of the hostages through decisive military victory'.
Intensifying military activity in the Palestinian territory would placate the far-right ministers in 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 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 approximately 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 denies there is starvation in Gaza and blames the UN for not distributing aid efficiently.
At least 40 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes 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 food outside distribution centres run by the private US Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
A nurse at al-Aqsa hospital was also killed when an airdropped pallet of aid fell on him in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. Another man was taken to the hospital after a crate of aid fell on his tent.
The World Health Organization announced it was delivering medicine and blood units to hospitals across Gaza – a rare delivery to bolster the Palestinian territory's devastated healthcare system.
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 7 October 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.'
A demonstration was also held outside the prime minister's office in Jerusalem in protest against plans to sack Israel's attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara. The government voted for her dismissal on Monday, despite the Israeli supreme court saying she should not be replaced until her term has ended.
In March, the Israeli justice minister started the process of firing the attorney general.
Baharav-Miara, who was appointed by the previous government, had come into conflict with Netanyahu on a number of issues including his indictments over allegations over bribery and fraud. The government has accused her of deliberately blocking its policy initiatives and for conducting politically motivated 'witch-hunts'.
She has also made public statements against the undermining of the separation of powers, understood to be a response to Netanyahu's controversial judicial overhaul.
Israel's high court of justice issued an injunction against the government's decision to dismiss the attorney general, leaving her in position for the time being. The government is expected to appeal against the decision to block the firing.
Israeli ministers have said they will stop inviting Baharav-Miara to hearings and committee meetings, regardless of the injunction.
The move to dismiss the attorney general has been widely criticised by opposition parties and rights monitors. The chair of the Democrats party, Yair Golan, accused the government of trying to fire Baharav-Miara to safeguard Netanyahu's political interests.
'The agenda for the upcoming meeting: increased security for Netanyahu and his family and the dismissal of the attorney general,' Golan said in a post on X, alleging the prime minister did not care about the lives of Israeli hostages.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
5 minutes ago
- The Independent
Inside Israel's plan to seize full military control of Gaza
Israel 's security cabinet has approved plans to take full military control of Gaza and to force the entire 2.3 million-strong population south, starting with an initial offensive and siege on its largest city, which they will empty by the symbolic anniversary of 7 October, according to sources briefed on the discussions. The plan was pushed through early Friday morning after a tense 10-hour marathon tense meeting, where Benjamin Netanyahu faced fierce resistance from his own chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, a source briefed on the meeting told The Independent. He said it would put the hostages' lives at risk, damage international legitimacy, and deplete reserve soldiers. There are also concerns there are no guarantees of 'total victory' and instead it will embroil Israel indefinitely in Gaza, impacting Israel's global standing and making even more of a pariah state. The proposal has already faced local and global outrage: Keir Starmer said hours after the announcement it will 'only bring more bloodshed', and the UN Human Rights Chief, Volker Türk, said it will lead to 'more massive forced displacement, more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction and atrocity crimes'. Civilians in Gaza described how they need 'a miracle to save us', and the families of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, some of whom chained themselves to gates outside the cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Thursday night, called it 'a colossal catastrophe for both the hostages and our soldiers'. Benjamin Netanyahu's office said publicly the main five goals are: Israel's security control of the entire Strip, disarming Hamas, returning the hostages, demilitarisation of Gaza, and 'the establishment of an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority '. In practice, sources briefed on the discussion said the Israeli military plan to begin 'gradually' at first – ordering the population of Gaza City to move and corral south of the tiny 25-mile enclave, which The Independent saw from the sky is already overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of displaced families living in makeshift shelters. The focus of the initial military offensive will be carried out by the symbolic date of 7 October 2025, after which a siege will be imposed on Gaza City and army forces 'will manoeuvre in it,' according to sources and reports. During the talks, despite backlash from Israeli military chief Zamir, who proposed a watered-down version of partial military occupation, some ministers at the meeting claimed they would not settle for anything less than the full military occupation of the entire Strip. There were some who also expressed anger at the increase of humanitarian aid to Gaza. The same source told The Independent that the United States, the biggest ally and supplier of weapons, had been informed on some details beforehand. According to the United Nations, over 86 percent of Gaza is already an Israeli-militarised zone, under displacement orders or in areas where these overlap – this new plan would see the army push into the final scraps left of the destroyed enclave. It will also see the forced evacuation and mass displacement of approximately a million civilians believed to be sheltering in the north, including in Gaza City, to the already overcrowded south. Prominent rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have said the forced displacement of Palestinian civilians constitutes a crime against humanity. Amnesty has also warned that the Israel's blockade and use of starvation as a 'weapon of war' is a part of an ongoing genocide, something Israel has repeatedly and vehemently denied. In Gaza City, which will be the focus of the attack, families already displaced five or six times said they were praying for a miracle as they cannot survive another renewed offensive or forced evacuation order. 'We feel like we're dead. Displacement is another death for me. It's literally death,' said Hanaa al-Ghoul, 40, in tears. 'I have no intention of moving south. Repeating the life of displacement in the south means feeling death every day. I can't do it,' she added. The plan has faced mass backlash from the families of the hostages and captives still held in Gaza, who said the decision was leading towards 'a colossal catastrophe' for their relatives and the soldiers . There are around 50 hostages left in Gaza, only 20 are believed to still be alive, although there are fears that the true number is much less. They said that by choosing military escalation over negotiation, the government had left their loved ones at the mercy of the militant group Hamas who killed over 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostage on 7 October, according to Israeli estimates. It 'means abandoning the hostages, while completely ignoring the repeated warnings from military leadership and the clear will of the majority of the Israeli public'. 'Our government is leading us toward a colossal catastrophe for both the hostages and our soldiers. The cabinet chose last night to embark on another march of recklessness, on the backs of the hostages, the soldiers, and Israeli society as a whole,' they added. Israeli official sources said last week there was already pushback from among the reservists, 'exhausted by the long call-ups.' Earlier, Netanyahu had said in an interview with Fox News that Israel plans to take control of all of Gaza, but did not want to 'keep' the besieged Strip long term, without specifying. 'We want to have a security perimeter. We don't want to govern it. We don't want to be there as a governing body,' he said. 'We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly,' he added, without giving further details. The Security cabinet later ruled it not would permit the Hamas militant group nor the Palestinian Authority - which is recognised globally and governs the occupied West Bank - to run Gaza. They gave no clarity on who Israel would permit to run what is left of destroyed strip. The office of the Palestinian presidency said that the displacement of one million Palestinians to the south 'represents a continuation of the policy of genocide, systematic killing, starvation, and siege, and a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and international legitimacy resolutions.' They said they would immediately address the UN Security Council 'to request urgent and binding action to halt these crimes' and urged the international community to intervene. The Palestinian deputy foreign minister, Omar Awadallah, urged the international community to urgently act: 'To the international community, are we going to accept apartheid colonialism in the 21st century? … Words are not enough. You should take actions.'
The Independent
5 minutes ago
- The Independent
Germany stops military exports that could be used in Gaza
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says his country will not authorize any exports of military equipment that could be used in Gaza 'until further notice.' Friday's move from Germany, which has been a stalwart supporter of Israel for decades, comes after the Israeli Cabinet announced plans to take over Gaza City. In a statement, Merz emphasized that Israel 'has the right to defend itself against Hamas' terror' and said that the release of Israeli hostages and 'purposeful' negotiations toward a cease-fire in the 22-month conflict 'are our top priority.' He said Hamas must not have a role in the future of Gaza. 'The even harsher military action by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, approved by the Israeli Cabinet last night, makes it increasingly difficult for the German government to see how these goals will be achieved,' he added. 'Under these circumstances, the German government will not authorize any exports of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip until further notice.' The German government remains deeply concerned about the suffering of civilians in Gaza, he said, adding: 'With the planned offensive, the Israeli government bears even greater responsibility than before for providing for their needs.' He called on Israel to allow comprehensive access for aid deliveries — including for U.N. organizations and other NGOs — and said Israel 'must continue to comprehensively and sustainably address the humanitarian situation in Gaza.' Germany also called on Israel's government 'not to take any further steps toward annexing the West Bank.'
BBC News
6 minutes ago
- BBC News
What we know about Israel's plan to take over Gaza City
Israel's security cabinet has approved a plan to take control of Gaza City, in a controversial escalation of its war in Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live in the city in the north of the Gaza Strip. It was the enclave's most populous city before the plan faces fierce opposition within Israel – including from military officials and hostages' families - and from the international Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told Fox News earlier that Israel planned to occupy the entire Gaza Strip and eventually "hand it over to Arab forces". Much is still very unclear, but here's what we know about the new plan. What are the details of the plan? The plan - or the "five principles for ending the war" includes:The disarmament of HamasThe return of all hostages, both living and deadThe demilitarisation of the Gaza StripIsraeli security control over the Gaza StripThe establishment of an alternative civilian administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian IDF said the military would prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the "civilian population outside the combat zones".It is unclear if this is new aid, and if it will be delivered by the controversial Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation or another mechanism. Why is just Gaza City being taken over? Before the cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said he wanted Israel to control all of the new plan, only Gaza City is mentioned. Israel has said it currently controls 75% of Gaza, while the UN estimates some 86% of the territory is either in militarised zones or under evacuation plan aims to have Israeli forces move to take control of the largest city in the enclave for the first time during this is home to one million residents and is surrounded by land that has already been under the IDF's control or subject to an evacuation over the city is likely to be the first phase of a full scale takeover of the Gaza Strip, our Middle East correspondent Hugo Bachega has has also been some speculation that the threat of full occupation could be part of a strategy to put pressure on Hamas to make concessions in stalled told Fox News Israel does " not want to keep it" and intends to hand it over to "Arab forces". "We want to have a security perimeter. We don't want to govern it," he told the outlet. When will Israel take over Gaza City? Israel has not said when the takeover will begin but reports in Israeli media suggest the military will not move into Gaza City immediately - and residents will need to be evacuated said it believed that the "alternative plan" presented to its cabinet would not "achieve the defeat of Hamas or the return of the abductees".However it it not clear what the alternative plan was or who had submitted it. Israeli media reports it was a more limited proposal from the army's chief of is being "intentionally vague" over who the Arab forces he names may be, according to the BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet, as he has been in the past with his plans for may be referring to the Jordanians and the Egyptians, who have said they are willing to work with Israel - but they have made it clear that they will not go into Gaza on the back of an Israeli occupation. No more details have been shared regarding a timeline for Gaza's post-takeover government, and Hamas not yet responded to the plan. What has the reaction been? Netanyahu is facing mounting criticism from hostage families and from world some time now, Israel's military leadership has been saying that their job in Gaza is done as Hamas no longer poses a threat as an organised military Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has called Israel's escalation "wrong" and that it "will only bring more bloodshed". Israel's decision to expand military operations in Gaza is a "declaration of a war crime", Palestinian National Initiative President Mustafa Barghouti said. Turkey's foreign ministry said Israel aims to "forcibly displace Palestinians from their own land", while Finland's Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said she hopes for an immediate Gaza ceasefire and immediate release of Israeli has also urged restraint, with Foreign Minister Penny Wong saying a Gaza City takeover "will only worsen the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza".The UN's human rights chief Volker Türk says "the war in Gaza must end now" and warns that further escalation "will result in more massive forced displacement, more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction and atrocity crimes".The Hostages Families Forum Headquarters said the decision "is leading us toward a colossal catastrophe for both the hostages and our soldiers". There have been some reports that the Americans had given Netanyahu the go-ahead to take over Gaza it is worth noting that NBC News reported a fiery phone conversation between US President Donald Trump and Netanyahu at the end of July - something the president called "fake news". Additional reporting from Ruth Comerford.
