‘I can’t justify this military operation any more’: the IDF reservists
refusing to return to Gaza

Three Israeli reserve soldiers who fought in the war against Hamas say
why they no longer want to be part of military

Ruth Michaelson, and Quique Kierszenbaum

The Observer, https://t.co/ImNncG0JLO

Sat 27 Jul 2024 17.00 BSTLast modified on Sat 27 Jul 2024 20.06 BST

For Israeli military paramedic Yuval Green, it was the command to burn
down a house that made him decide to end his reserve duty.

Green had spent 50 days in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis
earlier this year with his paratrooper unit, sleeping in a home lit
only by battery-powered fairy lights among the rubble and devastation.

He had begun to have doubts about the unit’s purpose there months
earlier when he heard about Israel’s refusal to agree to Hamas’s
demands to end the war, along with freeing hostages.

Green is one of three Israeli reservists who told the Observer they
will not return if called for military service in Gaza. All three
previously undertook compulsory military service in the Israel Defense
Forces (IDF), which forms the backbone of society.

They returned after the 7 October attacks by Hamas militants, when
almost 1,200 people were killed in towns and kibbutzim around Gaza and
about 250 taken hostage.

But the destructive behaviour Green says he witnessed from other
soldiers only fuelled the misgivings that he carried into Gaza,
despairing at what he describes as a cycle of violence. He said he had
stayed out of a sense of duty to care for those in his unit, who he
knew from his years of compulsory military service. They were angry
after seeing the devastation wreaked by Hamas’s attacks on Israeli
towns, he added.

Read it all here:
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/27/idf-reservists-refuse-to-return-gaza-israel>
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

On Sun, 28 Jul 2024 04:42:45 +0200, Steve Hayes wrote:

> �I can�t justify this military operation any more�: the IDF reservists
> refusing to return to Gaza
>

move them to the drone unit.