More than 130 Israeli reservists sign a letter refusing to fight in Gaza and Lebanon

CNN
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When Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7 last year, reservist Yotam Vilk was not called up for military service – he volunteered to fight. Since then, he has served with the Israeli military in Gaza for more than 230 days.

It has affected every part of his life. And now he is refusing to serve again.

“On October 7, I did not hesitate… because my people were murdered and killed and I understood that there was a need to save them and that there is still a need to save them, which the Israeli government apparently does not “Seems to be so urgent,” he told CNN in a telephone interview.

After completing his second reserve tour of duty in Gaza this summer, he decided he would refuse to return if asked. He believed that military action was justified in some cases, but that it should only be used as a tool to achieve diplomatic solutions conducive to peace.

He did not believe in the government's will to achieve this, even though “the destruction in Gaza is getting worse, the lives of Palestinians are getting harder and the lives of the Israeli hostages are getting harder.”

On October 9, Vilk, along with more than 130 other Israeli reservists, signed an open letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stating that they would refuse to serve unless an agreement was reached to end the war and repatriate the 101 hostages is still being signed in Gaza.

“For some of us, the red line has already been crossed, and for others it is fast approaching: the day when we will stop reporting to worship with broken hearts,” the letter said.

Vilk’s “red line” had been crossed, but it was not an easy decision.

On the one hand, by refusing to serve, he felt he was abandoning the hostages and leaving Hamas in charge of Gaza, which he said was making life worse for Palestinians.

On the other hand, by refusing to serve in a war, he feared that it would end with a renewed Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, in which he did not want to be involved.

Although Netanyahu said there would be no resettlement in Gaza, Vilk said the government's support for expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank made him doubt his intentions. Netanyahu's cabinet includes right-wing extremist ministers who have called for Israeli settlements in Gaza.

“You have put me in a terrible position… I feel betrayed by my own government,” he said.

And he is not alone.

Max Kresch served on Israel's border with Lebanon for 66 days after October 7th. Hostilities in the border region intensified as the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah pledged support to Hamas in Gaza. Now Kresch says he's had enough. When he returned to his home in Jerusalem at the end of December, he says he found it difficult to get his bearings and fell into a deep depression.

The service was very difficult for him, said Kresch, because the atmosphere was very “religious-militaristic.”

“A very large proportion of the people I was with felt religiously inspired to fight in this war, which was extremely uncomfortable for me,” he said.

He recalled a soldier telling him he believed it was a mitzvah, a Jewish religious duty, to kill Palestinians in Gaza, including children, “because they would grow up to be terrorists.”

Israel's far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir has expressed similar views. Kresch said he found it “shocking” that Ben Gvir had a significant voice in the country that resonated with many people.

Although some comrades held extreme views that were “very difficult to hear and endure,” Kresch considered them to be good people, which made the decision he made very difficult – and lonely – for him.

By signing the letter, he is not trying to discourage others from serving, he said, but rather to support those who have already chosen not to serve.

Kresch's concerns came to a head as Israel marked the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, a milestone he saw as the straw that broke the camel's back.

“A year has passed and we still haven't had a hostage deal… but making a deal doesn't mean I'm okay and suddenly ready to go back. The camel's back is broken. It takes a lot more to heal this,” he said.

Another 28-year-old reservist, who wished to remain anonymous because he did not want the families of fallen soldiers to feel betrayed by his rejection, served in Gaza for over 130 days. He also felt the burden of the anniversary.

“The military pressure has been overwhelming for just over a year and I do not believe further military action will change the situation,” he told CNN.

Like Kresch and Vilk, he considered it necessary to fight Hamas on October 7, but for what purpose?

“We can keep bombing Gaza… I won't even talk about the civilian costs because the people of Israel stand still when we talk about it. But the utilitarian costs. There is no point in fighting a war that could last forever,” he said.

“Forever war” has become a slogan that Netanyahu opponents use to describe what they say is his desire to keep the war going for his own political gains. Netanyahu has vowed that Israel will “keep fighting” until its enemies are defeated, the hostages are returned and Israelis can return to their homes in the south and north.

Last month, Israeli troops invaded southern Lebanon to begin the “next phase” of the war against Hezbollah.

The 28-year-old reservist comes from a city in northern Israel that was hit by Hezbollah rockets last year. He strongly believes that Israel must act against the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, but fears that doing so will divert the focus from Gaza and the repatriation of the hostages.

Kresch, who served on the border last year, believed at the time that Hezbollah was a threat that needed to be deterred. But now he believes that Netanyahu has “exploited” Israel’s collective trauma for political purposes.

It is not the first time since the Hamas attacks that reservists have declared their refusal to serve. Back in May, more than 40 reservists signed a letter after Israeli forces entered the southern Gaza town of Rafah.

But for this new letter, that number has more than doubled, and the stakes are much higher as Israel wages war on multiple fronts.

Speaking to Kann News, Transport Minister Miri Regev called for the signatories to be imprisoned.

“There is no place for refusal in the army. Not from the right and not from the left,” she said.

A few days after the letter was published, Kresch told CNN that he received a call from the officer in charge of calling up reservists in his unit. The officer asked him to take back his words or vowed not to call him back to the reserve, Kresch said.

“It was a kind of 'You're not breaking up with me, I'm breaking up with you' kind of conversation, with a touch of 'We can still work this out,'” Kresch remembers.

“I said I stand by what I signed… In my opinion, this cannot be fixed under Netanyahu, and whoever comes after will still have a lot of work to do to restore broken trust,” Kresch said.

Vilk says he received a call from his brigade commander a week after the letter was published threatening to remove him from his post.

He served as deputy company commander in Gaza and, despite his refusal, still holds that position. Vilk said the brigade commander claimed he was not allowed to speak against the government because it would be a violation of army orders.

“I still don’t know what will happen next,” Vilk told CNN, adding that he is not worried about the impact.

“I'm more concerned about my moral choices and my well-being and my ability to look back and believe that I made the right choices and was on the right side of history,” he said.

The 28-year-old reservist said he felt the same way. He didn't expect the letter to gain momentum, just hoped it would do some good.

“My conflict is not at all about people choosing to leave… it's about following orders when it helps our country and when it helps us save lives, and about not following orders when we “Don’t need it because they are harmful and dangerous,” he said.

“War is a bad thing. We should try to make it as short as possible. And right now it seems like war has become the goal of our leaders, it serves no purpose, it is the purpose itself.”