Hundreds of ex-Israeli officials call on Trump to help end the Gaza War

A group of some 600 retired Israeli security officials, including former intelligence agency heads, wrote Donald Trump to put pressure on Israel to put the war in Gaza immediately.

“It is our professional judgment that Hamas no longer represents a strategic threat to Israel,” said officials.

“Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis increases your ability to lead Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu and his government in the right direction: put an end to war, make the hostages, stop suffering,” they wrote.

Their call comes in the middle of information that Netanyahu pushes to extend military operations to Gaza while indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas have blocked.

Israel launched a devastating war in Gaza after the attack on Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023 in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken in Gaza in hostages.

More than 60,000 people have been killed following the Israeli military campaign in Gaza since then, the Ministry of Health managed by Hamas said.

On Monday, the ministry reported that at least 94 people had been killed in Gaza during the last day, including dozens who, according to them, died in Israeli strikes.

At least 24 people had been killed in searching for help, he added. Such reports have become almost daily in recent months, but are difficult to verify as international journalists, including the BBC, are blocked by Israel to enter independently from Gaza.

The territory also experienced mass deprivation following strong restrictions imposed by Israel on what is authorized in Gaza. The ministry says that 180 people, including 93 children, have died of malnutrition since the start of the war.

The agencies supported by the UN said that “the worst thing of famine is currently taking place” in Gaza.

The last intervention of the main former Israeli officials came after videos of two emaciated Israeli hostages were published by Hamas and Islamic activists in Jihad.

The videos were largely condemned by Israeli and Western leaders.

After the publication of the videos, Netanyahu spoke with the two hostage families, telling them that the efforts to return all the hostages “will continue constantly and tirelessly”.

But an Israeli official – largely quoted by local media – said that Netanyahu worked to release hostages by “Hamas’ military defeat”.

The possibility of a new escalation in Gaza can more anger the allies of Israel who put pressure for an immediate ceasefire while the reports of Palestinians die of famine or malnutrition cause a shock in the world.

The main group supporting the families of the hostages condemned the idea of a new military offensive saying: “Netanyahu directs Israel and the hostages in Doom.”

This point of view was advanced in the letter to Trump by former chief of Mossad Tamir Pardo, Ami Ayalon, former head of Shin Bet – the National Secret Service Agency of Israel – former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and former Minister of Defense Moshe Yaalon.

“At the beginning, this war was a just war, a defensive war, but when we achieved all the military objectives, this war ceased to be a just war,” said Ayalon.

The former senior managers direct the commanders of the Israel Security Group (CIS), which has urged the government in the past to focus on securing the return of hostages.

“Stop the Gaza war! On behalf of CEI, the largest group of former TSAhal and Mossad generals, Shin Bet, the police and diplomatic equivalents, we urge you to end the Gaza War. You have done so in Lebanon.

Israel has faced increasing international insulation, while generalized destruction in Gaza and the suffering of Palestinians arouse indignation.

Surveys in the world suggest that public opinion is increasingly negative about Israel, which exerts pressure on Western leaders to act.

But it is not clear what pressure, if necessary, Trump will choose to exercise the Israeli Prime Minister.

The American president has always supported his ally, even if he publicly recognized last week that there was a “real famine” in Gaza after Netanyahu insisted that there was nothing like it.