10/15/2024–|Last updated: 10/15/202411:35 PM (Mecca time)
Haaretz newspaper said on Tuesday that the Israeli army began suspending dozens of reserve soldiers who announced their refusal to continue performing military service unless a deal was reached to return Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip.
The newspaper added that the army telephoned the soldiers who signed a letter of protest asking it to conclude a deal to return the prisoners, otherwise they would refrain from serving, and informed them of the decision to suspend them.
She confirmed that one of the soldiers who signed the letter informed his colleagues that his commanders asked him about it, but he denied signing it.
Another soldier described the phone call as a “threat,” while a third soldier said that his battalion commander made a “long reprimanding call” with him, at the end of which it was decided to suspend him from service, according to the newspaper.
A week ago, the same newspaper said, “130 Israeli soldiers signed a letter warning that they will no longer serve unless the government works to reach an agreement regarding the hostages (detained in Gaza).”
She noted, “The letter was addressed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, government ministers, and Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy.”
Israel estimates that there are 101 prisoners in the Gaza Strip, while the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) announced that dozens of prisoners were killed in random Israeli raids.
Although the joint mediation efforts of Qatar, Egypt and the United States have continued for months, and the submission of one agreement proposal after another to end the war on Gaza and exchange prisoners, Netanyahu continues to set new conditions that include “continuing control over the Philadelphia border axis between Gaza and Egypt, and the Rafah crossing in Gaza, and preventing the return of fighters.” Palestinian factions to northern Gaza (by inspecting returnees through the Netzarim Corridor in the middle of the Strip).”
For its part, Hamas insists on a complete withdrawal of Israel from the Gaza Strip and a complete cessation of the war in order to accept any agreement.
With absolute American support, Israel has been committing genocide since October 7, 2023, in the Gaza Strip, leaving more than 140,000 dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and thousands missing, amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of dozens of children, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.