Dozens of Israeli soldiers conditionally refuse to fight in Gaza

 Tuesday, January 14, 2025

ISLAMABAD (Point News Today / Pakistan Point News - DW Urdu - 14 January 2025) According to the Associated Press, the letter from Israeli soldiers refusing to participate in the Gaza war comes at a time when pressure is mounting on Israel and Hamas to end the fighting. Ceasefire talks are ongoing, and both US President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump have urged a ceasefire agreement before January 20.

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Seven of the Israeli soldiers who signed the letter spoke to the AP about their reasons for refusing. They said they were not in favor of “killing Palestinians indiscriminately and burning their homes.”

Several soldiers said they were ordered to burn or demolish homes that posed no threat and that they had also seen “soldiers looting and vandalizing.”

The soldiers who refused to fight say that although the letter has 200 signatures, many more soldiers agree with their views.

‘Unforgettable scene of murder’

Yotham Volk, 28, an officer who refused to fight in the Gaza Strip, said that the ‘scene of murder’ of an unarmed Palestinian teenager by Israeli soldiers is etched in his mind.

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He told the AP that there are orders to shoot any unauthorized person who enters the Israeli-occupied buffer zone in Gaza. Yotham said he saw at least 12 people wounded by gunfire in the buffer zone.

Volk is among the Israeli soldiers who are against the 15-month-old conflict.

He says he has seen or done things during the fighting that he considers ‘immoral’.

Volk said that when he entered Gaza in November 2023, he thought that the initial use of force could bring both sides to the negotiating table. But the war dragged on. Volk added that he had seen the value of human life shattered.

Yuval Green, 27, a medical officer in the Israeli army, left the army last January after spending two months in Gaza. He said he could not live with what he saw happening there.

He said that soldiers desecrated homes. Damaged hospitals. Looted, “even taking things from places of worship.”

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Hamas also responsible for the deaths

Volk also said that Hamas was also responsible for some of the deaths. A detained Palestinian said that Hamas had paid some people $25 each to go to the buffer zone to gauge how the Israeli army would react.

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Wilk said the army fired warning shots before killing those who entered the buffer zone, but he believes they were too quick to kill "uninvited people."

Some soldiers told the AP that it took them a while to mentally accept what they saw in Gaza. Several others said that there were incidents that made them want to leave the army immediately.

But there are also those in the army who are opposing the movement to refuse to serve in the war.

Israeli military response

The Israeli army told the AP that it condemns refusal to serve in the military.

In a statement, the army said that such soldiers could be sent to prison. However, no one has been detained yet.

The Israeli army said that each case is being looked at individually.

As the war in Israel drags on, criticism of it is growing. But much of the criticism within the country has focused on the ceasefire to return the hostages.

International human rights groups have accused Israel of war crimes and mass killings in Gaza. The International Court of Justice is investigating allegations of mass killings made by South Africa, and is also seeking the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

But Israel strongly denies allegations of an unusually high number of Palestinian deaths, saying the military never deliberately targets civilians and takes every possible measure to minimize harm to the Palestinian civilian population.