Assaf, 29, remembers one of his nights as an Israeli soldier in Gaza: “I had the telescopic sight and the night vision scope. I remember aiming at his face and looking at him ready to shoot as soon as he did something. But I looked at it and it was not the face of someone who posed a threat to us.” He reflects on the unease, the emptiness and the discomfort he felt after leaving the Strip, where together with the men of his unit they beat Hamas for almost a month to prevent the repetition of a carnage like that of October 7 of the year past. But, at the same time, he confirmed how, in addition to killing civilians and destroying the enclave, the release of the hundred of his compatriots held hostage by Hamas and other Palestinian groups is not prioritized. He suspects that the main obstacle to this is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Assaf (who prefers not to publish his real name) is one of the 130 soldiers, regular troops and reservists who signed a letter addressed to Netanyahu on October 7, the anniversary of the war. In it they declare themselves deserters. The main reason alleged is the abandonment of those kidnapped, although they do not ignore the deaths of innocent Palestinians among the 43,000 Gazans who have already lost their lives. The war, they say in reference to the captives, represents “a death sentence” for their “brothers and sisters.” The text has also been sent to the Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, and the head of the Armed Forces, General Herzi Halevi. “Many hostages have died from the bombings of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), many more than those who have been rescued in military operations,” the letter recalls.
In addition to Assaf, who does not hesitate to support the two-state solution, Israel and Palestine, two other soldiers have agreed to be interviewed by Morning Express, these with first and last name. Everyone knows that their public gesture of protest made the prime minister very upset, but they have no regrets. Netanyahu asked that the full weight of the law fall on them, in addition to implying that they were not patriots, according to the newspaper Haaretz. When asked about the army, a spokesman limited himself to downplaying the number of signatories compared to the hundreds of thousands of troops that make up the troops.
The testimonies of these three reservists offer a reality of the war that is far removed from what military spokespersons and rulers usually give. And they harshly criticize the way in which a contest that they consider entrenched is developing, which is why they have not worn the uniform again. Assaf has fought in Gaza and the West Bank; Max Kresch, 28, has been deployed on the border with Lebanon, and Michael Ofer-Ziv, 29, has decided, among other matters, which places to bomb in the Strip from a military operations room in Israeli territory.
After more than two months having a “broad vision” of the military occupation of Gaza and the movements of his unit through the screens, Ofer-Ziv finished what was his only and last replacement at the end of 2023. A few days before, An event that left him “devastated” and that continues to hit him mentally was the death in Gaza by mistake at the hands of his companions of three Israeli hostages who were approaching the troops trying to surrender, showing a white flag and shouting in Hebrew. “How many incidents like that occurred with Palestinians, who were simply raising a white flag, trying to flee the war, and ended up shot by the military? There were many such cases,” he confirms, aware that the protocols, which they have, are often not followed and civilians are killed, the vast majority of them Palestinian.
“That was the complete opposite of my purpose in the army, which, mainly, was to save the hostages,” he emphasizes, launching new criticisms of the bellicose plans of the Executive, which he considers increasingly distant from the agreement to free them. Therefore, upon returning home, Michael Ofer-Ziv took stock of what he had experienced, what he had been a part of, and decided not to enlist again. Now, months later, he goes one step further by publicly signing the letter.
“We killed many Hamas fighters and attacked any military targets we found. “I think we took Hamas back 10 or 20 years in terms of its military capacity,” understands Assaf, who believes that this was already achieved at the beginning of this year, when he had already left the Strip. “I don’t think going from house to house and demolishing them all, even if it is a military site, is worth it.” [en cuanto al coste de] human lives,” he clarifies. “If we were fighting to get the hostages back, I would go back [a alistarme] 100% and I would be willing to risk my life to recover my compatriots,” he explains, before stating that every time a possible agreement approaches, it slows down. “I think he is the prime minister, but we can’t know for sure,” he maintains.
“Devilish option”
“Many Israelis think they are justified in hating the Palestinians in Gaza because they support Hamas. But, in the same way that there are many Israelis who support Bibi”, as the prime minister is popularly known, argues Max Kresch. He does not hesitate to compare Netanyahu and Yahia Sinwar, the Hamas leader recently killed in combat in the Strip, “two leaderships that are really harmful to their people.” It is not about choosing one or the other “as if they were football teams, because both represent a diabolical option,” says Kresch, while emphasizing that the current Executive takes Israel down the path of “racism” and “literally, terrorism.”
“From day one, I never had faith in him (Netanyahu) but, still, I risked my life for him,” he says. Kresch published, and maintains, a text on his profile on the social network Facebook in which he criticizes the “kill them all” climate that surrounded his stay on the border with Lebanon. That comment raised the ire of his colleagues and, weeks later, he was removed from his position, although his bosses never linked him to that publication. From outside, he says, numerous signs of support came to him.
For Assaf, the fact that the Palestinian militias are now reorganizing in some areas of the Strip does not mean that they have the capacity to attack Israel, much less repeat October 7. “But they will continue to want to kill us if we do not promote a political solution,” he adds. With the battle won at the military level, he believes that the priority should have been the captives, but the attacks continued and “many hostages have been killed directly by the IDF or by Hamas in circumstances of pressure from the army” which in his point of view would have that had been avoided. “The price we are paying is greater than the achievements we obtain,” he adds, especially remembering the three comrades from his unit who fell between August and September, in the replacement that he refused to go and those he said goodbye to in the cemetery.
“I completely disagree with those who say that there are no innocents in Gaza. […] “I am sure that among the two million inhabitants, many of them are not Hamas nor do they sympathize with Hamas,” says Assaf, describing a climate of growing tension and hatred driven above all by the supremacist positions of some rulers and leaders of the extreme right. Kresch expresses similar sentiments: “I have experienced a very, very hostile atmosphere of revenge and racism against Arabs. And I have several Arab friends and I like to get involved in activism for coexistence,” he explains.
Ofer-Ziv, like Kresch, had participated before the war in protests against Netanyahu and was very critical of the most right-wing government in the country’s history, which they described as “terrible.” But he did not hesitate, as Assaf also did, to enlist after October 7, 2023, when the war began with the attack led by Hamas, which caused some 1,200 deaths and 250 kidnapped, according to official data.
They feel that the burden of obligation weighs on them, but none of them believe that they will suffer “retaliation” or “revenge.” They argue that their objective as reservists was to prevent another similar massacre from being carried out and facilitate the return of the hostages. Although the reality on the ground was different. They believe that the objective of avoiding another massacre is being partially achieved, despite the tens of thousands of civilian deaths. But they think that military operations harm the captives’ return home. Not wearing the uniform — something frowned upon in much of Israeli society — is “the way to recover the hostages and save the lives of the soldiers,” according to Assaf, who says he does not accept criticism from politicians who have never gone to combat. .
For Kresch, the hardest part came after his mission. He separated from his partner, froze his studies, had to return to his parents’ house and, in addition, see how the Government abandoned him. He only found help in organizations outside the State, his family and friends. “We have gone through a tragedy. But it is very important to remember that the Arabs are not our enemies. Our enemy is Hamas,” he emphasizes. The real contest, he reflects, is not being fought between Israelis and Palestinians, but between those who want war and those who want peace.
