Middle East

Israel, former senior IDF and intelligence officials call for end to war in Gaza

Pressure mounts on Netanyahu: video of 20 former officials and letter from 600 colleagues to Trump. The appeal is to "lead" the ally out of the war

4 August 2025

Parenti di vittime all’Al-Shifa Hospital, a Gaza

2' min read

The pressure within Israel for an end to the offensive on Gaza continues to grow, with a double mobilisation from the top against the line of Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

Nearly 20 former senior Israeli security officials have released a video calling for a halt to the conflict in the Strip, claiming that Israel has accumulated more "losses than victories" and that the clashes continue in a logic anchored in more political than military dynamics.

In parallel, a bloc of 600 officials, including top Mossad and Shin Bet figures, wrote a letter with the same tone and request to US President Donald Trump. Hamas, the missive reads, "no longer represents a strategic threat to Israel": the White House should "guide" Netanyahu and persuade him to permanently halt the military assault that has cost an estimated 65,000 lives and an increasingly entangled humanitarian crisis.

The video of the 20 against the continuation of the war

The first roll call, the video one, brings together a total of 19 retired IDF chiefs of staff, intelligence chiefs, Shin Bet and Mossad directors, and police commissioners. Other names include IDF chief of staff and Prime Minister Ehud Barak, former chiefs of staff Moshe Ya'alon and Dan Halutz, and former Shin Bet director Yoram Cohen.

"Each of these people participated in cabinet meetings, operated in the smallest circles, and took part in all the most delicate and sensitive decision-making processes," the video explains, emphasising the "more than two thousand years of experience in national security and diplomacy" accumulated by the figures involved in the appeal.

The authors of the video claim that the fighting in Gaza could have ended long ago and call for an immediate resolution of hostilities, with a permanent ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages en bloc.

"We have a duty to stand up and say what we have to say," says former Shin Bet director Ami Ayalon. "This war started as a just war. It was a defensive war. But once it achieved all its military objectives, once it achieved a brilliant military victory against all our enemies, this war stopped being a just war. It is leading the State of Israel to the loss of its security and identity'.

Gaza, Netanyahu: "Hamas affama ostaggi come nazisti, non ci arrenderemo"

The 600's letter to Trump: convince Netanyahu

In parallel, a bloc of 600 former high-ranking officials from the security and intelligence world expressed the same line to Donald Trump, asking him to 'guide' the decisions of his ally Netanyahu.

"It is our professional opinion that Hamas no longer represents a strategic threat to Israel," wrote the authors of the missive, shared with the media on Monday. "In the beginning this war was a just war, a defensive war," said Ami Ayalon, former director of the Shin Bet security service, "But when we achieved all the military objectives, this war stopped being a just war. The conflict, nearing its two-year anniversary, 'is leading the State of Israel to lose its security and identity', Ayalon pointed out.

Alberto MagnaniCorrispondente
- @AlbMagna17
Luogo: Nairobi
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Argomenti: Lavoro, Unione europea, Africa
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