TEL AVIV: When nearly 1,000 Israeli Air Force veterans signed an open letter last week calling for an end to the war in Gaza, the military responded immediately, saying it would dismiss any active reservist who signed the document.
But in the days since, thousands of retired and reservist soldiers across the military have signed similar letters of support.
The growing campaign, which accuses the government of perpetuating the war for political reasons and failing to bring home the remaining hostages, has laid bare the deep division and disillusionment over Israel’s fighting in Gaza.
By spilling over into the military, it has threatened national unity and raised questions about the army’s ability to continue fighting at full force.
It also resembles the bitter divisions that erupted in early 2023 over the government’s attempts to overhaul Israel’s legal system, which many say weakened the country and encouraged Hamas’ attack later that year that triggered the war.
“It’s crystal clear that the renewal of the war is for political reasons and not for security reasons,” said Guy Poran, a retired pilot who was one of the initiators of the air force letter.
The catalyst for the letters was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision on March 18 to return to war instead of sticking to a ceasefire that had facilitated the release of some hostages.
In their letters, the protesters have stopped short of refusing to serve. And the vast majority of the 10,000 soldiers who have signed are retired in any case.
Nonetheless, Poran said their decision to identify themselves as ex-pilots was deliberate — given the respect among Israel’s Jewish majority for the military, especially for fighter pilots and other prestigious units.
Tens of thousands of academics, doctors, former ambassadors, students, and high-tech workers have signed similar letters of solidarity in recent days, also demanding an end to the war.
“We are aware of the relative importance and the weight of the brand of Israeli Air Force pilots and felt that it is exactly the kind of case where we should use this title in order to influence society,” said Poran.

BEIRUT: Hezbollah “will not let anyone disarm” it, the Lebanese group’s leader Naim Qassem said Friday, as Washington presses Beirut to compel the Iran-backed movement to hand over its weapons.
Hezbollah, long a dominant force in Lebanese politics, was left weakened by more than a year of hostilities with Israel sparked by the Gaza war, including an Israeli ground incursion and two months of heavy bombardment that decimated the group’s leadership.
The fighting was largely brought to an end by a November ceasefire, but not before the group’s longtime leader and Qassem’s predecessor Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli air strike.
“We will not let anyone disarm Hezbollah or disarm the resistance” against Israel, Qassem said in remarks on a Hezbollah-affiliated TV channel.
“We must cut this idea of disarmament from the dictionary.”
His comments came hours after another Hezbollah official said the group refused to discuss handing over its weapons unless Israel withdrew completely from south Lebanon and halted its “aggression.”
“It is not a question of disarming,” Wafic Safa said in an interview with Hezbollah’s Al-Nur radio station.
“What the president (Joseph Aoun) said in his inauguration speech is a defensive strategy.”
Safa, believed by experts to belong to the movement’s most radical faction, said Hezbollah had conveyed its position to Aoun, who on Tuesday said he sought “to make 2025 the year of restricting arms to the state.”
In his interview, Safa asked: “Wouldn’t it be logical for Israel to first withdraw, then release the prisoners, then cease its aggression... and then we discuss a defensive strategy?
“The defensive strategy is about thinking about how to protect Lebanon, not preparing for the party to hand over its weapons.”
Analysts have said that the once unthinkable idea of Hezbollah disarming may no longer be so, and may even be inevitable.
Under the November ceasefire, Israel was meant to withdraw all of its forces from south Lebanon.
But despite the deal, its troops have remained at five south Lebanon positions that they deem “strategic.”
Israel has also continued to carry out near-daily strikes against Lebanon — including on Friday — saying it is targeting members of Hezbollah.
Under the truce, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of Lebanon’s Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.
Lebanon’s army has been deploying in the south as Israeli forces pulled back.
Hezbollah says the ceasefire does not apply to the rest of Lebanon, despite being based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for the disarmament of non-state groups.
Hezbollah was the only group to keep its weapons after Lebanon’s 15-year civil war ended in 1990, saying that they were for “resistance” against Israel, which continued to occupy the south until 2000.
US special envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus, who visited Beirut this month, said Washington continued to press Beirut “to fully fulfil the cessation of hostilities, and that includes disarming Hezbollah and all militias.”
Safa said on Friday that both Hezbollah and the Lebanese army were respecting the terms of the truce.
“The problem is Israel, which has not done so,” he said.
On Saturday, a source close to Hezbollah told AFP that the group had ceded to the Lebanese army around 190 of its 265 military positions identified south of the Litani.