BBC: Why Israeli Men Volunteered to Fight, But Now Refuse to Return to Gaza

IDF soldiers pass by destroyed homes inside the Gaza Strip. (IDF Handout via REUTERS)

These vignettes are extracted from the original article by the BBC's Special Correspondent Fergal Keane.

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Above, Yuval Green (26) is among those refusing to continue fighting in Gaza after answering his country's call on 7 Oct 2023.

His personal turning point in the war came with an order he could not obey.

“They told us to burn down a house, and I went to my commander and asked him: ‘Why are we doing that?’ And the answers he gave me were just not good enough. I wasn’t willing to burn down a house without reasons that make sense, without knowing that this serves a certain military purpose, or any type of purpose. So, I said no and left.”

That was his last day in Gaza.

Yuval is the co-organizer of a public letter signed by more than 165 – at the latest count – IDF reservists, and a smaller number of permanent soldiers, refusing to serve, or threatening to refuse, unless the hostages are returned – something that would require a ceasefire deal with Hamas.


Michael Ofer-Ziv (29) was an operations officer in a brigade war room. (Photo: Getty Images)

The decisive moment for Michael Ofer-Ziv came when the IDF shot three Israeli hostages in Gaza in Dec 2023. The three men approached the army stripped to the waist, and one held a stick with a white cloth. A soldier had felt threatened and opened fire, killing two hostages. A third was wounded but then shot again and killed, when a soldier ignored his commander’s ceasefire order.

"If the victims were Palestinians, we just would never hear about it,” Michael said.

We wish these young soldiers well.




The numbers of war-resisters in Israel will grow as war-related guilt, pangs of conscience, memories of horror, and PTSD spread throughout the ranks. This is an all too familiar pattern with war. As I wrote in a previous post, high school girls will be refusing induction into the IDF, as did a young man who will face judicial consequences for his moral stand.

Gil Zalsman, the Chair of the Israeli National Council for Suicide Prevention, had warned about the “tsunami of mental illnesses” among IDF personnel in the occupied territories and the potential increase in suicide cases after the end of the war. He stressed that referrals to crisis and mental health centers in the occupied territories increased by 40% last year.

On 22 Nov, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper wrote that at least six IDF soldiers who fought in Gaza and Lebanon committed suicide in recent months. In the US, an average of 20 veterans dies from suicide every day.


Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yx56ep165o

https://en.irna.ir/news/85679804/Israeli-official-warns-against-increase-in-mental-illnesses-in

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_veteran_suicide