{"id":297131,"date":"2025-05-04T04:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T04:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/04\/israeli-pilots-protest-letter-reveals-deepening-rift-over-ongoing-war-in-gaza\/"},"modified":"2025-05-04T04:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T04:54:11","slug":"israeli-pilots-protest-letter-reveals-deepening-rift-over-ongoing-war-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/04\/israeli-pilots-protest-letter-reveals-deepening-rift-over-ongoing-war-in-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli pilots’ protest letter reveals deepening rift over ongoing war in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Israeli Air Force is regarded as one of the country’s most elite units.<\/p>\n

So, when hundreds of current and former pilots call for an end to the war in Gaza<\/strong><\/a> to get the hostages out, Israelis take notice.<\/p>\n

This month, 1,200 pilots caused a storm by signing an open letter arguing the war served mainly “political and personal interests and not security ones”.<\/p>\n

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\n The pilots’ protest letter
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\n Part of the letter translated
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/strong><\/a> said the original letter was written by “bad apples”.<\/p>\n

But Guy Paron, a former pilot and one of those behind the letter, said the Israeli government had failed to move to phase two of the ceasefire deal with Hamas, brokered under US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

That deal called for a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of all the remaining hostages. Mr Netanyahu continues to argue that the war must continue to put pressure on Hamas<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mr Paron said the (Israeli) government “gave up or violated a signed agreement with Hamas” and “threw it to the trash”.<\/p>\n

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More on Benjamin Netanyahu<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

“You have to finish the deal, release the hostages, even if it means stopping that war,” he argued.<\/p>\n

It’s not the first time Israeli<\/strong><\/a> pilots have taken up a cause. Many of them also campaigned against Mr Netanyahu’s 2023 judicial reforms.<\/p>\n

“In this country, 1,000 Israeli Air Force pilots carry a lot of weight,” Mr Paron added.<\/p>\n

“The Air Force historically has been the major force and game-changer in all of Israel’s wars, including this current one. The strength of the Air Force is the public’s guarantee of security.”<\/p>\n

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Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n


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UN runs out of food aid in Gaza<\/span>
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Anti-government campaign spreads<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, the open letter campaign has spread to other parts of the military.<\/p>\n

More than 15,000 people have signed, including paratroopers, armoured corps, navy, special units, cyber and medics. The list goes on.<\/p>\n

Dr Ofer Havakuk has served 200 days during this war as a combat doctor, mostly in Gaza, and believes the government is continuing the war to stay in power.<\/p>\n

He has also signed an open letter supporting the pilots and accused the prime minister of putting politics first.<\/p>\n

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\n Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the annual ceremony at the eve of Israel’s Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers. Pic: AP
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He said Mr Netanyahu “wants to keep his coalition working and to keep the coalition together. For him, this is the main purpose of the war”.<\/p>\n

A ceasefire could lead to the collapse of the prime minister’s fragile far-right coalition, which is opposed to ending the war.<\/p>\n

Threat of dismissal<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Israeli military has threatened to dismiss those who have signed protest letters.<\/p>\n

We met a former pilot who is still an active reservist. He didn’t want to be identified and is worried he could lose his job.<\/p>\n

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“This is a price that I’m willing to pay, although it is very big for me because I’m volunteering and, as a volunteer, I want to stay on duty for as long as I can,” he told us.<\/p>\n

The controversy over the war and the hostages is gaining momentum inside Israel’s military.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong>
Israel ‘starving, killing’ civilians<\/strong><\/a>
Seriously ill Gaza kids arrive in UK<\/strong><\/a>
Israeli minister called a ‘war criminal’<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

It is also exposing deep divisions in society at a time when there is no clear sign about how the government plans to end the war in Gaza, or when.<\/p>\n

The renewed war in Gaza over the last year and a half followed deadly Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw around 250 taken hostage.<\/p>\n

More than 51,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the Israeli military’s response, many of them civilians, according to the enclave’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Israeli Air Force is regarded as one of the country’s most elite units. So, when hundreds of current and former pilots call for an end to the war in Gaza to get the hostages out, Israelis take notice. This month, 1,200 pilots caused a storm by signing an open letter arguing the war served […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/25\/05\/768x432\/skynews-israeli-pilots-letter_6905653.jpg?20250504035852","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[59967,43,1178,4237,20709,15422,9724,1185,7849,3102],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":297133,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297131\/revisions\/297133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}