More than 200 Israeli soldiers have signed a letter to the government wherein they have threatened to stop fighting in war-torn Gaza if a ceasefire deal is not made.

 

According to foreign media reports, an event was organised in the Israeli capital, Tel Aviv, where a large number of soldiers gathered to issue a statement saying they did not agree with the way the war in Gaza was being fought.

 

Some of them, soldiers said, had been deployed in Gaza for a long time and could not justify what they had to do or the things they saw.

 

One of the soldiers, Yuval Green, while talking to the media, said he and his comrades had a lot of freedom in the field. “Soldiers have a lot of freedom… they can do pretty much whatever they want, and they won’t be accountable,” reports quoted him as saying.

 

While addressing the gathering, Yuval asserted that he wanted to serve to help break the vicious cycle of violence on all sides.

 

Some other soldiers also complained of “too many strikes on too many innocent civilians”.

 

An infantry soldier talked about the guilt of having watched the unnecessary burning down of  15 buildings during a two-week stint in late 2023. “I didn’t light the match, but I stood guard outside the house. I participated in war crimes,” he said.

 

“I’m so sorry for what we’ve done,” the soldier added but did not allow the media outlet to name him out of fear of retaliation. He also said he wouldn’t fight at all if given the chance to do it all over again.

 

While the soldiers hope the movement would put pressure on the government to stop with its atrocities against innocent Palestinians, a trauma therapy specialist said that many of them were suffering from “moral injury”.

 

The Israeli offence in Gaza started on October 8, 2023, a day after Hamas's attack on a music festival in Israel. The genocide has so far consumed more than 46,000 lives in Gaza and at least 875 in occupied Palestinian territory. Meanwhile, at least 1,139 people have been pronounced dead in Israel.

 

As the situation now continues for 15 months, negotiations for a ceasefire are underway.

 

More than eight hours of talks in Doha have been fruitful, and a deal is imminent, reports said.

 

Officials from mediating countries, including Qatar, Egypt and the United States (US), besides Israel and Gaza themselves, were quoted as saying that an agreement for a truce in the besieged strip and the release of hostages was closer than ever.