More than 100 Israeli soldiers have threatened to stop fighting in Gaza if the government does not seek a hostage release deal, an Israeli newspaper report has claimed.
The group of 130 troops warned that Benjamin Netanyahu had ‘crossed a red line’ and that continuing the war will ‘endanger lives’, according to Haaretz.
It comes as the Israeli Prime Minister vowed to keep fighting until his country secures a ‘total victory’ over Hamas and the return of all the captives.
The troops are understood to have written in a letter to cabinet ministers and the IDF’s chief of staff: ‘Many hostages have been killed by IDF strikes, many more than those who have been rescued in military operations to save them.’
‘If the government does not change course immediately and work towards securing a deal to bring the hostages home, we will not be able to continue serving,’ they continued.
IDF soldiers continue their operation in southern Lebanon on October 9 (file picture)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a discussion at the Israeli Parliament Knesset in Jerusalem on July 17
A convoy of Israeli armoured vehicles makes its way to the northern Gaza Strip on October 6 (file picture)
‘For some of us, the red line has already been crossed, and for others, it is rapidly approaching: the day when, with broken hearts, we will stop reporting for service.’
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The group of 130 IDF soldiers includes both regular and reserve troops, some of whom have served in Israel’s war on Gaza since last year’s October 7 attacks.
It comes as a large-scale Israeli operation in northern Gaza has killed dozens of people and threatens to shut down three hospitals, Palestinian officials and residents said.
Heavy fighting is under way in Jabaliya, where Israeli forces have carried out several major operations over the course of the war and then returned as militants regrouped.
The entire north, including Gaza City, has suffered heavy destruction and has been largely isolated by Israeli forces since late last year.
Residents of Jabaliya, a refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, said thousands of people have been trapped in their homes since the operation began on Sunday, as Israeli jets and drones buzz overhead and troops battle militants in the streets.
Israeli armoured vehicles make their way to the northern Gaza Strip on October 6
Gaza’s health ministry said it recovered 40 bodies from Jabaliya between Sunday and Tuesday, and another 14 from communities farther north. There are likely more bodies under rubble and in areas that cannot be accessed, it said.
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An air strike in Jabaliya early on Wednesday killed at least nine people, including two women and two children, according to Al-Ahly Hospital, which received the bodies.
Strikes in central Gaza killed another nine people, including three children, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
Residents of Jabaliya fear Israel’s aim is to depopulate the north and turn it into a closed military zone or a Jewish settlement.
Israel has blocked all roads except for the main highway leading from Jabaliya to the south, according to residents.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said it was evacuating seven schools that were being used as shelters and that only two of eight water wells in the camp are still functioning.
A man stands before a collapsed building in the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on October 9
The IDF continues its operational activity in southern Lebanon on October 9
A man carries a child while walking past a collapsed building in the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on October 9
Israel has also expanded its week-long ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon and is considering a major retaliatory strike on Iran.
A rocket fired from Lebanon killed two people in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, and another six people were wounded in a series of stabbings in the city of Hadera on Wednesday, which Israeli police described as a militant attack.
The police said the attacker was ‘neutralised’, indicating that he was killed.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu warned that Lebanon would meet the same fate as Gaza if its people did not rise up against Hezbollah, which began firing rockets into Israel after the initial Hamas attack.
That set in motion a cycle of escalation that ignited a full-scale war last month.
‘You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead todestruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,’ Mr Netanyahu said, addressing the Lebanese people.
